Complex fluids – including polymers, particles, surfactants and biomolecules in solution – are key components in technologies spanning commodity and consumer products to cutting-edge pharmaceuticals and advanced materials. A common engineering feature of these materials is their structure, which often exists away from thermodynamic equilibrium at the “mesoscale” – in between the length scales of individual molecules and a bulk material.
The Helgeson Lab investigates the processing of mesostructured complex fluids to enable materials formulation, design and discovery. To do so, we develop experimental and theoretical tools for multi-scale and high-throughput characterization of fluid structure, dynamics and rheology. We have particular expertise in developing methods for in situ dynamic monitoring of fluids to characterize and model the evolution of material properties during processing. We apply these tools to engineer better materials for applications in human health, energy efficiency and sustainable materials.
Illustration of a colloidal gel forming by viscoelastic phase separation
Optical micrograph of a coarsening polyelectrolyte coacervate
Illustration of in situ scattering measurements in a high shear capillary device
Photograph of a fluidic four roll mill for probing complex fluids in complicated flows
Artist depiction of multi-phase nonoemulsion droplets
Recent Group News
2022.10.03 - Welcome to the group: Caidric Gupit
We welcomed a new postdoc to the group, Dr. Caidric Gupit! Caidric received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo from the Polymer Chemistry Lab under the supervision of Prof. Mitsuhiro Shibayama. At UCSB, he is co-supervised with Prof. Megan Valentine, and will be working on projects applying the group's recently-developed methods for high-throughput microrheology to study dynamically-evolving polymer fluids, networks and stimuli-responsive materials. Welcome, Caidric!
Continue Reading2022.10.03 - Welcome to the group: Caidric Gupit