Hi !
I am Caroline, I am a PhD student in soft matter and polymer physics, working on theory, numerical simulations and experiments. I am supervised by Thomas Salez, in Condensed matter theory group at the LOMA, U. Bordeaux and Joshua McGraw, at Gulliver lab, ESPCI.
Research
Themes
I am working on soft and porous materials. Such systems, as smart hydrogels, find application in biomedical engineering, switchable optics and mocrofluidics, biological encapsulation…
Mechanical response of poroelastic hydrogels
When submitted to a sudden pressure, a gel fully swollen in a solvent instantaneously deforms, as an incompressible material would do. Then, due to fluid flows inside the matrix of the gel, the deformation increases with a diffusive dynamics, and reaches a saturations. The final deformation is associated with a compressible behaious. I work on a theoretical description of the mechanical behaviour of permeable, poroelastic layer, of infitie and finite thickness. Experimentally, colloidal-probe Atomic Force Miscroscopy and Surface Forces Apparatus experiments in sphere-plane geometry are suitable to gently probe mechanical properties of soft and fragile swollen hydrogels of various thickness.
Surface destabilization of swollen material
When exposed to watera hydrophylic polymer network absorbs the surrounding solvent and swell isotropically, exhibiting a volumetric change. If the crosslinked network is now attached covalently to a rigid substrat such as glass, the swelling is geometrically constrained. A sufficient change in volume results in a destabilization of the free surface in the form of elastic instabilities. I work on the various morphologies that can be observed at the surface.
Techniques
Surface Forces Apparatus
Numerical simulations of elastohydrodynamics (EHD) problems
Spinning drop tensiometry
Fluorescence confocal microscopy
Teaching
CV & publications
Curriculum vitae
Education
LOMA (Univ. Bordeaux)
Paris
Paris
Paris
Toulouse
Scientific experience
Gulliver, ESPCI
Supervised by Joshua McGraw
Numerical simulations of elastohydrodynamic interactions.
Gulliver, ESPCI and LOMA, U. Bordeaux
Supervised by Joshua McGraw and Thomas Salez
Diffusive and hydrodynamic motion near soft and porous interfaces.
L2C, U. Montpellier
Supervised by Domenico Truzzolillo
Study of interfacial tension between miscible fluids by spinning drop tensiometry.
EMBL Australia, U. of New South Wales, Sydney.
Supervised by Yann Gambin et Emma Sierecki
Study of oligomerization and activity of molecular chaperone proteins by single-molecule spectroscopy.
with ENS team
Study of oligomerization and activity of molecular chaperone proteins by single-molecule spectroscopy.
Publications
Article
Main oral contributions and posters
hydrogel films. GDR ISM. Grenoble, October 2021. Oral.
Collaborations
ll
EmetBrown group
A team interested in confined Brownian motion
Collaborators :
Permanents :
Non-permanents :
Caroline KOPECZ-MULLER
Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d’Aquitaine (LOMA)
351 cours de la libération
33405 Talence Cedex
Phone : + 33 (0)5 40 00 61 96
E-mail: caroline.kopecz-muller@u-bordeaux.fr