16 July 2015
SCI is pleased to bring you news from our collaborative partner, The Royal Society, on an upcoming discussion meeting that may be of interest to SCI members.
The science of soft interfaces (lipid membranes, emulsions, particle-stabilized droplets etc) is rapidly moving into an era of predictive capability that allows the design and development of advanced materials to be based on secure scientific knowledge.
Soft interfacial materials are increasingly prevalent in (for instance) drug delivery, domestic care products and food manufacture. They also have strong potential either directly or as precursors for 'bulk heterojunctions' in energy materials such as solar devices and batteries. In all these applications, control of interfacial properties is the paramount element of materials design. The classical route for stabilizing and controlling interfaces is by addition of amphiphilic molecules including lipids and surfactants. Alongside these, colloidal particles (which tend to adsorb irreversibly to interfaces so long as they are completely wet by neither phase) are becoming increasingly important as their nonequilibrium interfacial physics becomes better understood. Globular proteins, which can show a combination of amphiphilic and colloidal stabilization modes, are also increasingly used, as are other biologically derived materials such as hydrophobins (amphiphilic proteins that undergo permanent conformational change on binding to an interface), and some synthetic analogues of these (colloidal particles with patchy surface chemistry such as 'Janus beads').
The Royal Society discussion meeting, Soft interfacial materials: from fundamentals to formulation, will not only address fundamental science, focussing on generic design principles for self-organization and interfacial structure, but also explore the resulting prospects for 'informed formulation' of new and improved industrial products.
The discussion meeting takes place in London on 12 and 13 October 2015. Registration is free, but places are limited. Please register using the link below.
The poster abstract submission deadline is fast approaching. If you are interested, please submit your abstract by 31 July. Further details on where to submit your abstract are available via the link below.
Related Links
- Soft interfacial materials: from fundamentals to formulation, 12-13 October 2015
- SCI Collaborations
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