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I am a Chancellor’s Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Edinburgh (UK). My research focusses on the physics and application of soft materials, especially those in which interfaces are crucial and those that have potential for applications in coatings and energy materials. Examples include, but are not limited to: particle-stabilized emulsions, colloidal crystals and bijels. 3D structural characterization is an important part of my research and includes confocal microscopy, electron microscopy and X-ray CT.
Key Publications:
Quantitative Morphological Characterization of Bicontinuous Pickering Emulsions via Interfacial Curvatures M. Reeves, K. Stratford, J. H. J. Thijssen Soft Matter 12, P4082 (2016) Bicontinuous Pickering emulsions (bijels) are a physically interesting class of soft materials with many potential applications including catalysis, microfluidics and tissue engineering. They are created by arresting the spinodal decomposition of a partially-miscible liquid with a (jammed) layer of interfacial colloids. Porosity L (average interfacial separation) of the bijel is controlled by varying the radius (r) and volume fraction (f) of the colloids (L ~ r/f). However, to optimize the bijel structure with respect to other parameters, e.g. quench rate, characterizing by L alone is insufficient. Hence, we have used confocal microscopy and X-ray CT to characterize a range of bijels in terms of local and area-averaged interfacial curvatures; we further demonstrate that bijels are bicontinuous using an image-analysis technique known as `region growing’. In addition, the curvatures of bijels have been monitored as a function of time, which has revealed an intriguing evolution up to 60 minutes after bijel formation, contrary to previous understanding. http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2016/SM/C5SM03102H?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2FSM+(RSC+-+Soft+Matter+latest+articles)#!divAbstract