UNA4CAREER
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement Nยบ 847635.
910591. Group of Complex System Group: Colloids, Polymers and Interfaces
Department of Chemical Physics
Facultad de Ciencias Químicas
The research group is currently formed by three permanent Professor (2 Full Professors and 1 Associate Professor), 1 Research Fellow, and 2 PhD Student, with their research interests focused in different problems of interfacial and soft matter systems, especially in those case in which colloidal materials are assembled at fluid/fluid and solid/fluid interfaces, and how it is possible to exploit the knowledge obtained from their fundamental studies in the development of new applications. Nowadays, the research group is involved in collaborations with different academic and industrial partner around the world. Among the latter, the research group has a long-term collaboration (around 15 years) with the Research Laboratory of L’Oreal (France).
The researcher will find two laboratories in which he/she could access to different facilities and state of the art-instrumentation: FT-IR, Fluorecence and UV-Vis spectrophotometers; Langmuir and Langmuir-Blodgett balances; Drop tensiometer; Maximum bubble pressure tensiometer; Capillary waves spectrometer; Raman spectrometer; Quartz-crystal microbalance; Light Scattering and Zeta-potential equipment; Brewster angle microscope; Multi-trap optical tweezers; Optical and confocal microscopes; General laboratory equipment including vacuum lines, laboratory hoods, etc. Access to Facilities such as: NMR, X-Ray, Electron Microscopes, AFM, Micro-Raman, Light Scattering, Ultracentrifuges, Ellipsometer.
The Research Project is related to different aspects of the interfacial nano-engineering:
a) Study of colloidal dynamic in 3D and 2D with special interest on systems with a high density of objects (crowded systems), which may provide the bases for understanding some of the physico-chemical processes occurring in cells.
b) Fabrication of nanocapsules by self-assembly approaches.
c) Study of systems formed by mixtures of polymer/protein with surfactant. The ability to self-assembly of this systems and their rich phase behavior become interesting the study of this systems in many technological applications. Furthermore, their ability to adsorb to fluid and solid surfaces focus a big research interest due to their potential applications, being possible the use of these systems by themselves or like vector for controlled release of actives species.
d) Stabilization of interfaces using nanoparticles.
e) Controlled propulsion of micro-objects through viscous fluid. Here, collective behavior, dynamics, and transport of these synthetic actuated under confinement will be explored.
f) Design and characterization of magnetic interfacial microrollers, microsized particles moving due to the application of rotating fields. Different field configurations will lead to different surface swimmers, with different geometries: from linear aggregates to planar colloidal carpets, all of them adsorbed on the fluid interface where the rotating spheres are embedded.
