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 (Associate Professor) jignes(at)ub.edu (NanosMat)
Joan-Anton Farrera Piñol (Associate Professor) (NanosMat)
Ignasi Vélez Cerón (Predoctoral Researcher) (NanoBio)
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

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