Research Overview
Colloids are composed of microscopic solid particles suspended in liquids. They enable the concentration and transport of nutrients and contaminants in surface and subsurface water.
Faculty with research interests in colloids include:
–Borguet group which uses a variety of techniques to probe colloidal mineral-water interfaces. Recent highlights include in-situ monitoring of salt induced deprotonation of silica nanoparticles in colloidal suspension.
–Dai group who are experts in using nonlinear optics to investigate absorption on, and structure at, colloid surfaces.
–Klein group deploys sophisticated computational tools to understand complex systems whose recent work has investigated the aqueous hydrogen and the stability of lipid bilayers.
–Wunder group investigates colloidal environments to understand how nanoparticle coatings, e.g. lipid derived, and affect colloidal stability.
Technical Capabilities
Non linear optics
Light scattering
Atomic Force Microscopy
Transmission Electron Microscope
Recent Publications
Jen SH.; Dai HL.; Gonella G.; “The Effect of Particle Size in Second Harmonic Generation from the Surface of Spherical Colloidal Particles. II: The Nonlinear Rayleigh-Gans-Debye Model.” Journal of Physical Chemistry C 114(10): 4302-4308 (2010).
Madathingal, R.R.; Wunder, S.L. “Confinement Effects of Silica Nanoparticles with Radii Smaller and Larger than R(g) of Adsorbed Poly(ethylene oxide).” Macromolecules 44(8): 2873-2882 (2011).
R. Kramer Campen, Allison K. Pymer, Satoshi Nihonyanagi and Eric Borguet. “Linking Surface Potential and Deprotonation in Nanoporous Silica: second harmonic generation and acid/base titration.” Journal of Physical Chemistry C 114 (43), 18465-18473 (2010).
DOI: 10.1021/jp1037574
Xibing He, W. Shinoda, R. DeVane, and Michael L. Klein, “Exploring the utility of coarse-grained water models for computational studies of interfacial systems”, Mol. Phys., 108, 2007-2020 (2010).
DOI: 10.1080/00268976.2010.503197