PhD on leveraging morphology for design of complex materials for 4D printing

We are looking for a PhD candidate for a four-year research project on modelling and simulations of the morphology of soft permeable particles for 4D printing applications. In this project, you will implement the shape of soft permeable particles in a particle-based Brownian Dynamics computational framework, develop tools to characterize non-spherical interacting permeable particles, and investigate the effect of shape dynamics on the mechanical behavior of soft permeable particle suspensions.

JobDescription
Complex matter offers ample opportunity for design of new material and new industrial techniques such as 4D printing. Soft colloidal suspensions, in particular, can be used as smart building blocks for responsive materials - their size and their ability to swell and deform in response to different stimuli enables their integration in emerging applications at the micro and nanoscales. However, full control over their properties remains an experimental challenge, for instance common classification of soft colloidal particles is based on elasticity but ignores permeability. While synthesis of long-sought colloidal architectures is possible, autonomous shape-dependent assemblies of multi-particle systems remains an engineering challenge. To this end, mesoscale models provide the versatility demanded to study efficiently both their shape and size dynamics independently. Dynamic simulation of soft ellipsoids can reveal a richer phase diagram than hard spheres or hard ellipsoidal system, with dynamics playing a fateful role. The goal of this project is, hence, to investigate the effect of shape and size dynamics of interacting soft permeable colloidal particles on the mechanical behavior of suspensions designed for 4D printing.