| | Research is focused on a variety of soft materials including polymers, surfactants, colloids, and nanoparticles. Computer simulation methods and statistical mechanical theories are the tools used to model the systems and extract their microscopic and thermodynamic properties. Methods include: Monte Carlo techniques, dissipative particle dynamics, molecular dynamics, langevin dynamics, mean field theories, self-consistent field theory, and random phase approximation. We are investigating the structural properties and dynamics of nanoparticles-filled polymer composites and the elasticity of polymer-anchored lipid membranes. Other projects include polymer adsorption on lipid membranes, phase behavior and dynamics of two-component lipid vesicles, morphological phase diagram of one-component vesicles, and diffusion of polymers in confined geometries. |
