Dynamics of Complex Fluids and Interfaces
The research focus of this HI ERN research department is the development of simulation and modeling techniques for printing and coating processes for thin film production. The results of this work are supposed to enable an optimized production of solar cells and electrocatalytic active films. The theoretical work of this section perfectly connects the HI ERN research areas “printable photovoltaics” and “hydrogen as secondary energy source”.
Recent News






Team
The Dynamics of Complex Fluids and Interfaces department during an online-meeting. Also on the picture are two master's students: Dominik and Martin.
Copyright: HI ERN


Dipl. Phys. Olivier Ronsin
PhD Student
MSc Students
Name | Duration |
---|---|
Alireza Roohnvazsomeh | since Dec 2021 |
Hüseyin Öz | since Aug 2021 |
Martin Majewski | since Aug 2021 |
Julian Aeissen | since Dec 2020 |
Dominik Geyer | Nov 2020 – May 2021 |
Chun-Ting Cho | Oct 2019 – Jun 2020 |
Xing Gu | May 2019 – Feb 2020 |
Christian Hartnagel | Apr 2018 – Sep 2018 |
Sunil Gopalakrishna | May 2017 – Nov 2017 |
Viktor Haag | Nov 2016 – May 2017 |
Alumni
Research
The central challenge about thin liquid films and their conversion into solid films is how to tailor their microstructures, which influence the electronic, optical, and mechanical properties. For example, the relation between the microstructure, the functional properties of the thin films and the process variables in the printing process is currently not sufficiently understood for the manufacturing of a printed solar cell and for electrochemical systems. For this reason the theoretical activities of this research group link fundamental scientific research with the well-defined application of mass-printing highly efficient electrochemical systems and solar cells. Based on the fundamental physical and chemical properties of the used materials and processes, an in-depth understanding of structure-property and process-structure relationships shall be developed. Thus, modeling and simulation of the structure formation processes during printing, drying and post-processing will address the following aspects:
- Wetting and spreading of liquids, dispersions or emulsions during printing by means of thin film equations and mesoscale simulation methods
- Rheological models of highly filled dispersions adapted to shear rates in the printing device
- Statistical mechanics of the dynamic evolution of interactions between the building blocks – molecules and nanoparticles – which determine the thin-film rheology via aggregation and self-organization
- Heat and mass transfer coupled to structure formation processes during deposition and drying including the important issue of crack formation
Effect of post-processing in various environments on defect states
Modeling and simulation of structure-property relationships of thin films
Once predictive models of structure-property and process-structure relationships for thin film formation have been developed, mathematical optimization is used as the tool for developing highly efficient printing processes. The predictive models are supposed to be validated by cooperating with the experimental groups (e.g. at the Energiecampus Nürnberg).
Publications
For a complete list of publications visit our publication database.
Two-dimensional Cahn–Hilliard simulations for coarsening kinetics of spinodal decomposition in binary mixtures
Physical chemistry, chemical physics 23(43), 24823 - 24833 (2021) [10.1039/D1CP03229A]
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Theoretical framework for two-microswimmer hydrodynamic interactions
New journal of physics 23(7), 073041 - (2021) [10.1088/1367-2630/ac1141]
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Lattice Boltzmann simulations of stochastic thin film dewetting
Physical review / E 104(3), 034801 (2021) [10.1103/PhysRevE.104.034801]
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Lattice Boltzmann simulations of drying suspensions of soft particles
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London / A 379(2208), 20200399 - (2021) [10.1098/rsta.2020.0399]
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Instability of particle inertial migration in shear flow
Physics of fluids 33(9), 092008 - (2021) [10.1063/5.0063566]
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Capillary‐bridge forces between solid particles: Insights from lattice Boltzmann simulations
AIChE journal 67(9), e17350 (2021) [10.1002/aic.17350]
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Bioinspired acousto-magnetic microswarm robots with upstream motility
Nature machine intelligence 3(2), 116 - 124 (2021) [10.1038/s42256-020-00275-x]
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Phoretic colloids close to and trapped at fluid interfaces
ChemNanoMat 7(10), 1073-1081 (2021) [10.1002/cnma.202100196]
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Scallop Theorem and Swimming at the Mesoscale
Physical review letters 126(22), 224501 (2021) [10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.224501]
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Regimes of motion of magnetocapillary swimmers
The European physical journal / E 44(4), 59 (2021) [10.1140/epje/s10189-021-00065-2]
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