Presentation

Deformability — the ability of a material to change shape — is a key property in a very wide range of phenomena such as the debonding of an adhesive tape, the shaping of a solid by drip casting or the flow of a liquid through a porous medium. At SIMM, we investigate how complex liquids and soft solids form and... deform. In fact, deformability in soft matter is made possible through a few defining features:

a) weak interactions within the structure, either short range weak chemical bonds or longer range interactions (e.g. van der Waals interactions between surfaces or electrostatics)

b) supramolecular structures, at various length scales, from 10 nm to 100 µm, with more or less heterogeneities and hierarchy, and the associated dynamics

c) a strong role of surfaces and interfaces, because deformation can imply changes in surface area and associated changes in energy

This is why we consider soft solids and complex fluids with the points of views of both chemical engineering and material sciences, with a broad spectrum of approaches ranging from materials chemistry to physics, through physical chemistry and mechanics. Even if we are interested in other properties like optics, we mainly target fundamental understanding of properties like transport, flow, rheology or more generally resistance to deformation (elastic, viscoplastic or viscous flow, for both bulks and surfaces). Naturally we also investigate their interactions and their relations to material structure. Because of the strong relevance of all these phenomena for many industrial processes, we believe our research can help empower the development of environmentally friendly technologies.