Self-organized complexity and self-assembling materials (SOC&SAM)

Department Materials Science and Physical Chemistry, Faculty Chemistry

The Self-organized Complexity and self-assembling Materials Group (SOC&SAM) performs basic research in the field of soft Nanotechnology.
A significant part of the current effort is in the context of active soft materials, where the group have studied the aqueous gel that forms in-vitro when the molecular motor protein kinesin is combined with self-assembled microtubules of the cytoskeleton protein tubulin.

In the context of colloidal transport, the group has developed a strategy to command the self-assembly and to drive ensembles of microscale solid or liquid inclusions in confined geometries.

Francesc Sagués Mestre (Full Professor) f.sagues(at)ub.edu (NanoBio)
Jordi Ignés Mullol (Full Professor) jignes(at)ub.edu (NanosMat)
Joan-Anton Farrera Piñol (Associate Professor) (NanosMat)
Olga Bantysh (Predoctoral Researcher) (NanosMat)
Joel Torres Andrés (Predoctoral Researcher) (NanosMat)

Probing active nematics with in situ microfabricated elastic inclusions. Ignasi Vélez-Cerón, Pau Guillamat , Francesc Sagués and Jordi Ignés-Mullol. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). March 7, 2024, 121 (11) e2312494121. Doi: 10.1073/pnas.2312494121.

Velez-Cerón I.; Ignes-Mullol J.; Sagues F. Active nematic coherence probed under spatial patterns of distributed activity. 2024, Soft Matter, 20, 48. 10.1039/d4sm00651h.

Multimodal fluorescence microscope with fast adaptive polarimetry. Martínez-Prat B.; Arteaga O.; Sagués F.; Ignés-Mullol J. 2023, HardwareX, 16, e00480 Doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2023.e00480

TIC Reorientation under Electric and Magnetic Fields in Homeotropic Samples of Cholesteric LC with Negative Dielectric Anisotropy. Oswald P.; Poy G.; Ignés-Mullol J. 2023, Crystals, 13, 6, 957. Doi: 10.3390/cryst13060957

Active boundary layers in confined active nematics. Jerôme Hardoüin, Claire Doré, Justine Laurent, Teresa Lopez-Leon, Jordi Ignés-Mullol & Francesc Sagués. Nature Communications volume 13, 6675, 2022.

Scaling Regimes of Active Turbulence with External Dissipation.B. Martínez-Prat, R. Alert, F. Meng, J. Ignés-Mullol, J.F. Joanny, J. Casademunt, R. Golestanian, and F.Sagués. Phys. Rev. X. ,2021 11, 031065

Stability analysis of flow of active extensile fibers in confined domains. Zhao L., Yao L., Golovaty D., Ignés-Mullol J., Sagués F., Carme Calderer M. Chaos. 2020, 30(11)

Active microfluidic transport in two-dimensional handlebodies. Hardoüin J., Laurent J., Lopez-Leon T., Ignés-Mullol J., Sagués F. Soft Matter. 2020, 16(40)

Active, self-motile, and driven emulsions. Ignés-Mullol, J., Sagués, F. Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science, 2020, 49, 16-26

Física de no-equilibrio de materiales activos y biomaterials. PID2022-137713NB-C21. IP: Jordi Ignés Mullol. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. (2023-2026)

Materia blanda fuera de equilibrio: materiales activos y sistemas vivos. PID2019-108842GB-C22. IP1: Jordi Ignés Mullol/IP2: Francesc Sagués Mestre. Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (2020-2023)

– Optical microscopes with temperature control. Polarizing, fluorescent, upright/inverted. Electric and magnetic control (1T permanent magnet).
– High sensitivity and high speed cameras.
– Langmuir-Blodgett setup with Brewster angle microscopes.
– Microfluidics equipment: plasma cleaner, FemtoJet, syringe pumps, Micro-forge.

– ESPCI-ParisTech (T. López-León); University of Oxford (J. Yeomans); Ecole Normale Supérieure (P. Oswald); Univ. of Colorado (D. Schwartz, I. Smalyukh); U. Cal. Sta. Barbara (Z. Dogic, C. Marchetti); Brandeis University (S. Fraden); Kent State University (O. Lavrentovich); Max Planck MPIDS (R. Golestanian).

Visit the group website