This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $400,000 will support research into active liquid-liquid phase separation in microgravity from October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2026. The award was made under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), which aims to foster innovation and excellence in engineering research.
The University of California, Santa Barbara will conduct three complementary research aims to increase understanding of active liquid-liquid phase separation and associated interfaces. Researchers will create millimeter-sized soft interfaces between an active fluid and passive polymer suspension to study how gravity influences active fluctuations and traveling waves. They will also analyze how such an interface disintegrates into an active emulsion in microgravity. Additionally, the project will examine the dynamics of coarsening active droplets starting from a uniform initial state, and investigate how active wetting transitions occur when active fluid climbs boundaries. Findings from this research are expected to rigorously test theoretical models of how active stresses couple to soft deformable surfaces, with potential relevance to synthetic mechanical protocells and biology.
Generated 1/6/24, 1:37 PM