The research objective of this project is to understand how lateral confinement (either by edges or walls) determines the characteristics of surfactant adsorption and the morphology of surfactant aggregates. To this end it is crucial to study, understand, and predict the effects of lateral confinement on the thermodynamic properties of adsorbed surfactants. This project explores how nanopattern size affects surfactant adsorption and self-assembled structures under confinement. Patterns of controlled size and type will be manufactured using lithographic techniques and both the amount and morphology of the adsorbed surfactant layer will be determined. Experimental data will be employed to initialize molecular simulation studies. All-atom molecular dynamics will be employed to interrogate the structure of adsorbed surfactants. Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations, parameterized using the results of all-atom simulations, will be performed to calculate adsorption isotherms and predict novel phases for the adsorbed aggregates for comparing and interpreting experimentally-measured quantities, for predicting exotic assembly morphologies, and for guiding subsequent experimental verification.
Because lateral confinement could induce a wealth of novel phases for the aggregates, this research will provide transformative insights towards the manufacture of nanostructured surfaces. Further, surfactant adsorption on irregular solid surfaces dictates the outcome of a number of practical applications ranging from mineral flotation to oil-drilling operations and very little is known regarding the morphology of surfactant aggregates adsorbed on rough surfaces. This project is expected to yield educational impacts on multiple levels. High-school students from the Oklahoma School for Science and Mathematics (OSSM) and Norman High School will actively participate to this project during the summer. A unique blog (i.e., a world-wide-web journal) will document the graduate student's experiences working on research and present a "human" face of scientists to the broad public. The blog will be referenced in all papers resulting from this project, and it will be accessible from the PIs' web sites. By presenting to the public how the research is carried out "from start-to-finish," the blog is expected to stimulate future students into undertaking a career in STEM disciplines.
