The Institute of Nanotechnology and Bioengineering Seminar

Friday, 12 October, 14:00, in GR203

Shear-induced polarized light imaging for structural characterization of soft matter materials

by

Dr Oleksandr Mykhaylyk, University of Sheffield

Visualization remains the most effective tool in many areas of science especially in the field of soft matter. Since soft matter materials subjected to external field (flow) often demonstrate a related anisotropy in their refractive index and stress, flow birefringence has become one of the phenomena to be widely used in their characterization. Recently developed shear-induced polarized light imaging (SIPLI) technique for rheo-optical measurements of polymeric liquids (O. O. Mykhaylyk, Soft Matter, 2010, p. 4430-4440) will be presented. The technique is combinatorial and allows properties of soft matter materials to be tested in a wide range of shear rates in a single measurement. This gives a unique opportunity for in-situ studies of shear-induced phenomena such as stress, orientation…