Microfluidics & Soft Matter Group
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Tirupati
Thank you for visiting our page! Our research group is located at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Tirupati.
We study Physics of complex fluids using Microfluidic methods and also address interdisciplinary problems along with Biology & Chemistry groups.
OUR RESEARCH
Soft Matter
We study the interaction of complex fluids with various surfaces of modified wettability, roughness and porosity. We study dynamics of drops while spreading, impact, and evaporation. We study systems involving such dynamics, inspired from nature, to explore the underlying physical concepts.
Our investigations also involve colloidal self-assembly. In general, we study physics behind patterns formed by active and non-active matter both while drying and wetting.​ We also investigate dynamics of active droplets.
Biology with Microfluidics
How pathogens survive in aerosols:
We use microfluidic technology to address biological research problems. We can generate microdroplets in microchannels, which act as reservoirs for micro-organisms and cells. It allows addressing individual cells and studying their metabolic activities. Tiny droplets can mimic bioaerosols that carry pathogens. together with Microbiology scientists, we investigate how pathogens can survive stressful conditions in the aerosols.
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Bacterial deposition inside drops
Microfluidic drops can study individual cells
GALLERY
Microfluidic droplet generation. Each droplet is 100 micrometer in diameter
Nucleation of Dextran microdroplets at the edge of a drop under evaporation.
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The nucleated microdroplets coalesce and advance in a stepwise manner ((Soft Matter, 2024,20, 8260-8266))
Phase separation of a PEG/dextran microdroplet during evaporation. The nuclei flow inside the droplets and eventually merge to form discrete phases.
This is a sessile drop of PEG and dextran evaporating on a solid surface. The dextran nucleates upon liquid-liquid phase separation and migrates towards the center of the drop. Our study explains how these dynamics evolves over time (Soft Matter, 2024,20, 8260-8266)
Arabidopsis thaliana grown on a microfluidic chip. Timelapse image of the root growth.
Microfluidic emulsion droplets evaporate in a gradient manner (Physics of Fluids 34 (2022)).
OUR LAB
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