Abelardo Ramirez-Hernandez

Soft matter is dominated by the relatively weak interactions between their constituent entities. They are easily deformed and the energy scale of the interactions is in the order of magnitude of the thermal energy. These materials self-assemble into structures whose length scale is in the mesoscopic regime. Soft materials could exhibit a range of thermophysical properties that are intermediate between those of liquids and crystalline solids. It is because these unique properties that soft materials have attracted abiding interest not only from a fundamental point of view but also for technological applications. Examples of these materials are: colloids, polymers, surfactants, liquid crystals, virus, etc.

In recent years, the directed assembly of block copolymer thin films has attracted interest for fabrication of dense arrays of nanostructures. Chemically patterned surfaces can control the orientation, dimensions and shapes of block copolymer domains. The understanding of the impact of chemical patterns on block copolymer morphologies as well as the rheological properties of these materials and the underlying physics give insight into the nanofabrication of complex nanostructures useful in advanced technologies.

Using computer simulations and theory we study the statistical physics of Soft Condensed Matter, with particular emphasis on self- and directed assembly of block copolymers, rheology of polymer melts and nanocomposites. Their research is based on the use of coarse-grained models to address large scale and time properties of these materials.