Soft Matter and Complex Systems Seminar

Light in microfluidic setups is often used to monitor the flows in the micro-channels and to read out information from the microfluidic chips. But it can be also a clean and powerful energy source for machining. My aim is to use light to control the flows using photoresponsive materials that change their properties in response to light to fabricate active microfluidic components. Focused light beams could open and close miniature valves built directly into the structure of the chip, and peristaltic light-driven pumps could drive the liquid through the channels. Among all photoresponsive materials, my interest focuses mainly on liquid crystal elastomers (LCE), liquid crystal gels (LCG) and liquid crystal networks (LCN). They exhibit fast and reversible shape changes that can be controlled by light. These materials have already been used in e.g. light-driven microrobots. In my presentation I would like to discuss ideas related to designing, testing and optimization of microfluidic active components and its integration into microfluidic setups.

The seminar will be held on Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82784273907