Our Methods

Synthesis of Conductive Materials

The building blocks of soft materials must be carefully tuned to enhance our ability to probe specific transport phenomena prevalent in each application. Fundamentally, novel colloidal particles and polymeric materials can be synthesized, and new surface chemistries can be introduced to alter their stability and interaction energy. By manipulating these properties, we can target specific electrical and rheological properties that probe their macroscopic performance. 

Rheology

When we deform soft matter its microstructure changes. To process soft materials into useful technologies, we must understand and predict how these changes occur in response to an external stimulus. Rheology, the study of flow, measures the force required to impose a well-defined shear deformation on a material. With rheometers customized to perform in situ measurements, our lab measures useful macroscopic properties such as the flowability, or material softness. We can then develop the constitutive relationships that govern micro- and macro-scopic characteristics

Electrical Measurements

Soft materials that incorporate electrically active building blocks are at the heart of many novel electronic devices. In many cases, the charge transport in these materials is inherently coupled to the structure and dynamics of the conductive building blocks. We can combine impedance spectroscopy with rheology to reveal the unknown links between the underlying microstructure and the macroscopic transport behavior. By understanding how shear deformation impacts electrical behavior, we can better engineer soft materials to suit a variety of technological needs.