Liquids and Complex Fluids Group

Our Scope:
The Liquids and Complex Fluids Group, formed from the union of the Liquids and Complex Fluids Groups, aims to advance research on the liquid state of matter by fostering collaborations within a broad spectrum of experimentalists, theorists and computer simulators. Our scope encompasses both the microscopic and mesoscopic length scales in systems that range from ‘simple’ liquids to soft condensed matter. Topics therefore range from the structure and dynamics of pure liquids of all kinds to complex fluids such as emulsions, gels, foams, colloids, and liquid crystals. The group also has strong interests in synthetic and bio-polymers, and thus enjoys close collaboration and overlap with the Polymer Physics Group where appropriate. Other topics covered include liquid mixtures and solvation phenomena, liquids and glasses under extreme conditions, confined liquids and fluids at interfaces, the glass transition and arrested states of matter (including the structure of glasses and amorphous solids), crystal growth in liquids, and self-assembly from solution. The field also has strong links with biologically-inspired physics and nanotechnology.

Special Features:
This highly interdisciplinary field has industrial links in the pharmaceutical, petroleum and plastics, food and personal care industries, among others. The physical realisation of many ideal model systems will attract physicists interested in statistical mechanics, liquids, elasticity, flow behaviour and rheology, and non-equilibrium phenomena. Nevertheless,liquids and complex fluids are topics that are poorly covered in the traditional undergraduate curriculum so a distinctive aim of the group is postgraduate education, for example, via graduate schools aimed at the exposition of basic ideas which cut across the sub-disciplines of the field. Another aim will be the development of new instrumentation for work on liquids and complex fluids at UK X-ray and neutron sources together with sophisticated data interpretation tools. The Group will therefore benefit from interactions with the Neutron Scattering Group where appropriate. Interaction with other liquid matter researchers will be strengthened by developing links with the Faraday Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (the interests of many physical and theoretical chemists encompass the topics covered by our group) and through co-operation with the Liquids Board of the European Physical Society.