Interfacial solidification

The manufacturing of solid materials from colloidal suspensions or polymer solutions can be achieved through drying, crystallization, polymerization, cross-linking, or gelation, and requires an understanding of how a solidification front propagates. In complex fluids, this propagation will be coupled with other volume and interface transport mechanisms due to concentration, thermal, or stress gradients.

How are components (colloids, polymers, surfactants, gases) transported to an evaporation or crystallization front where solutes concentrate?
How is this transport coupled with the appearance of mechanical stresses in the material as it solidifies?
How does the structure of a foam evolve during the solidification (gelation or cross-linking) of the continuous phase?

To this end, we are developing experimental methods based on imaging to characterize the kinetics of solidification front propagation, gradients (temperature, concentration), nucleation and growth of pores/bubbles/interfaces, and their effects on stresses and strains.

– Interfacial crystallization in foams
– Solidification of foams by jamming or cross-linking
– Freezing of bubbles and droplets
– Drying of complex fluids
– Interfacial gelation