Dr. Armas-Perez received his PhD in materials science from the National University of Mexico (UNAM). He joined the group of Professor Juan de Pablo, at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at UChicago, as a postdoctoral fellow in September 2012. Currently, he is working on the field of liquid crystals; specifically, he is focused on the modeling of these systems, using molecular and coarse-grain level simulations.
His research focuses on the study of the effect of confinement of liquid crystals on certain classes of geometries, like droplets or between plates, on a micro- and nano-scale. His studies are based on computer simulations, using molecular and coarse-grain methods. Also, he is interested in studying basic molecular models, confinement restricted to bi-dimensional space, using MC and MD methods.
Fluctuations and phase transitions of uniaxial and biaxial liquid crystals using a theoretically informed Monte Carlo and a Landau free energy density
Villada-Gil, Stiven, et al. "Fluctuations and phase transitions of uniaxial and biaxial liquid crystals using a theoretically informed Monte Carlo and a Landau free energy density." Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 31.17 (2019): 175101.
Sharp Morphological Transitions from Nanoscale Mixed-Anchoring Patterns in Confined Nematic Liquid Crystals
Armas-Pérez, Julio C., et al. "Sharp Morphological Transitions from Nanoscale Mixed-Anchoring Patterns in Confined Nematic Liquid Crystals." Langmuir 33.43 (2017): 12516-12524.
Directed self-assembly of colloidal particles onto nematic liquid crystalline defects engineered by chemically patterned surfaces
Li, Xiao, et al. "Directed self-assembly of colloidal particles onto nematic liquid crystalline defects engineered by chemically patterned surfaces." ACS nano 11.6 (2017): 6492-6501.
Demixing by a nematic mean field: coarse-grained simulations of liquid crystalline polymers
Ramírez-Hernández, Abelardo, et al. "Demixing by a nematic mean field: coarse-grained simulations of liquid crystalline polymers." Polymers 9.3 (2017): 88.
Mesoscale structure of chiral nematic shells
Zhou, Ye, et al. "Mesoscale structure of chiral nematic shells." Soft matter 12.44 (2016): 8983-8989.
Directed self-assembly of nematic liquid crystals on chemically patterned surfaces: Morphological states and transitions
Li, Xiao, et al. "Directed self-assembly of nematic liquid crystals on chemically patterned surfaces: Morphological states and transitions." Soft Matter 12.41 (2016): 8595-8605.
Liquid crystal free energy relaxation by a theoretically informed Monte Carlo method using a finite element quadrature approach
Armas-Pérez, Julio C., Juan P. Hernández-Ortiz, and Juan J. de Pablo. "Liquid crystal free energy relaxation by a theoretically informed Monte Carlo method using a finite element quadrature approach." The Journal of chemical physics 143.24 (2015): 243157.
Liquid Crystal Enabled Early Stage Detection of Beta Amyloid Formation on Lipid Monolayers
Sadati, Monirosadat, et al. "Liquid crystal enabled early stage detection of beta amyloid formation on lipid monolayers." Advanced Functional Materials 25.38 (2015): 6050-6060.
Theoretically informed Monte Carlo simulation of liquid crystals by sampling of alignment-tensor fields
Armas-Pérez, Julio C., et al. "Theoretically informed Monte Carlo simulation of liquid crystals by sampling of alignment-tensor fields." The Journal of chemical physics 143.4 (2015): 044107.