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Home >  Department >  Medicinal and Life Sciences >  Physical Chemistry of Colloid and Polymer

Physical Chemistry of Colloid and Polymer


Staffs

Junpei Yamanaka, Ph.D., Professor
Tohru Okuzono, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Akiko Toyotama, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Research Project

  • Phase transition and phase separation of colloids
  • Theoretical and numerical study of nonequilibrium soft matter
  • Development of novel photonic colloidal materials
  • Crystallization of charged colloids under microgravity

We study crystallization (order-disorder phase transition) and phase separation of charged colloids as model systems to investigate phase behavior of condensed matter in general. We also study applications of the gelled colloidal crystals to optical devices and sensing materials. Current topics are (i) crystallizations of charged colloids under temperature and pH gradients[1,2], (ii) phase separation in binary charged colloids, (iii) crystallization of the charged colloid under microgravity.

We study dynamics of soft matter (colloids, polymers, liquid crystals, etc.) both theoretically and numerically, in order to clarify the physical essence, which resides in complex phenomena of soft matter out of equilibrium. Current topics are (iv) theoretical analysis of drying processes of polymer solutions, and (v) phenomenological modeling of crystallization of colloids under external fields.

[1]J.Yamanaka, M.Murai, Y.Iwayama, M.Yonese, K.Ito, and T.Sawada, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 126, 2004, 7156-7157

[2]A. Toyotama, J. Yamanaka, M. Yonese, T. Sawada, and F. Uchida, J. Am. Chem.Soc., 129, 2007, 3044-3045.

(1) Schematic illustration of liquid and crystal states of charged colloidal dispersion.

(2) (a) A microphotograph of the colloidal crystal.(b) Photos of charged colloidal crystal immobilized by the polymer gel matrix. (c) A photo of the colloidal crystal grew in the International Space Station (Collaboration in JAXA 3DPC Project).

(3) A snapshot of density field of colloidal particles under gravity obtained by the phase-field-crystal model.

Contact Information

Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagoya City University,
3-1, Tanabe-dori, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8603, Japan

E-mail:yamanaka@phar.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
TEL/FAX:+81-52-836-3444