Title:
Non-equilibrium self-assembly of structured fluids: a multi-scale engineering problem.
Funding:
A PRIN project funded by MUR (under NextGenerationEU), Prot. 2022JJRH8H.
Timeline:
October 2023 – October 2025.
Units and participants:
Politecnico di Milano: Prof. Mosè Casalegno.
Politecnico di Torino: Prof. Daniele Marchisio, Dr. Francesco De Roma, Dr. Nunzia Lauriello, Dr. Antonio Buffo, Dr. Gianluca Boccardo.
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II: Prof. Rossana Pasquino, Prof. Nino Grizzuti, Dr. Nicola Antonio di Spirito.
Università degli Studi di Bologna: Prof. Giuseppina Montante, Prof. Nicodemo Di Pasquale, Prof. Alessandro Paglianti, Dr. Francesco Maluta.
Project goals:
This project aims at investigating structured fluids with a multiscale approach combining experiments, theory and simulations. A
particular test case, representative of other structured fluids, is selected and studied: binary mixtures of water and Pluronic.
Pluronics are tri-block amphiphilic copolymers, aka as poloxamers, with important applications in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic
industries. In the context of this project, Pluronics will serve as a model system, due to the wide range of molecular weights and
amphiphilic features covered. In fact, depending on the type of molecule, temperature, concentration and external applied flow, they
can indeed behave as unimers, create supramolecular aggregates or give rise to phase transitions.
The research group during the meeting in Bologna (10/05/2024)