Research at the LPM
Complex materials play a dominant role in everyday life as well as in applied science and industry. The complex materials which are studied at the LPM span from biological systems such as human blood to composites based on polymers or rubbers or even metal pastes and powders.
The research on red blood cells is done in collaboration with the “Dynamics of Fluids Group” of Prof. Christian Wagner.
Experimental techniques
Mechanical and thermal properties
RHEOLOGY
Capillary rheology is the main tool to investigate linear and nonlinear viscoelastic properties of rubber/polymer compounds and pastes. Rotational rheology is applied to investigate phase transitions of hydrogels, complex elastic shear moduli and viscosities of complex fluids.
BRILLOUIN LIGHT SCATTERING
Brillouin light scattering (BLS) is a non-destructive technique to collect information about all components of the elasticity tensor of fluids and solids. The combination of BLS with rotational rheology allows for the study of structure formation under shear.
CALORIMETRY
Depending on the research objectives and the samples under study, the applied techniques range from standard Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Modulated DSC to ultra-fast chip calorimetry for very small samples in the range of nano grams.