Unit

Soft Materials Laboratory

Laboratory
Summary

The Soft Materials Laboratory at EPFL, part of the Institute of Materials, focuses on bio-inspired drop-based processes to create microstructured polymeric materials that can be stiffened through targeted mineralization. They study the relationship between structure, local composition, and mechanical properties of these materials, exploring their potential applications in the biomedical field. Research areas include biomineralization, emulsions, hydrogels, and nanoparticles. The lab investigates the formation and stability of emulsion drops, fabricates hydrogels with enhanced mechanical properties, synthesizes non-equilibrium nanoparticles, and studies the early stages of CaCO3 formation. They also work on charge-selectively permeable self-healing microcapsules, ionically crosslinked viscoelastic films, and amorphous nanoparticles.

Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related publications (47)

From Surfactants to 3D Printing: How Ion-Chelator Pair Interactions Affect the Mechanical Properties of Bioinspired Materials

Gaia De Angelis

The remarkable adaptability observed in marine ecosystems has often inspired researchers when developing new soft materials. The research undertaken in this thesis explores how ion chelator pair interactions influence the mechanical properties of bioinspir ...
EPFL2024

Influence of the hydrophile-lipophile balance of perfluorinated surfactants on the emulsion stability

Esther Amstad, Gaia De Angelis

Emulsions are omnipresent in our everyday life; for example, in food, certain drug and cosmetic formulations, agriculture, and as paints. Moreover, they are frequently used to perform high-throughput screening assays with minimum sample volumes. Key to the ...
Springer Heidelberg2024

Controlling the Microstructure and Composition of 3D Printed Soft Load-Bearing Hydrogels

Matteo Hirsch

Hydrogels are among the first materials expressly designed for their use in biomedicine. However, state-of-the-art applications of hydrogels are severely limited because they are typically either too soft or too brittle such that they cannot bear significa ...
EPFL2023
Show more