Sibani Lisa Biswal
William M. McCardell Professor, Associate Department Chair, Director of Graduate Studies,
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
SURF Mentoring
Potential projects/topics: The Biswal lab carries out research with complex fluids. These are fluids that contain particles, surfactants, or polymers and flow in new and interesting ways. We use engineering processes to understand and control the fluid for a variety of applications. Some of the fluids involve magnetic materials or bubbles and foams.
Potential skills gained: fluid flow, surface chemistry, microscopy
Required qualifications: chemistry
Direct mentor: Post-doctorate, Graduate Student
Mentored presenters may have participated in these courses
HONS 471
Student Project Titles List
Naphthenic Acid Adsorption at the Water-Calcite Interface via Spectroscopic Ellipsometry
Application of Nanoparticles to Mitigate Asphaltene Deposition in Crude Oil Reservoirs
Structure Formation of Paramagnetic Colloids in Time-Varying Fields
Research Areas
Dr. Biswal’s research program focuses on using chemical, biological, and engineering approaches to study soft materials such as colloids, polymers, lipids, and surfactants. One of her main research area has been in developing new materials using colloidal particles. These synthetic materials are chains of patterned magnetic colloids that have rigidity and length specificity, and are able to demonstrate capability for folding, self-assembly, and specific chemical and biorecognition. Another area of interest is the use of microcantilever beams to investigate the lipid-dependent mechanisms responsible for vesicle rupture and bilayer fusion to form supported lipid bilayers and monolayers. These supported lipid bilayers have been widely studied as model systems for elucidating the properties of lipids, membranes and membrane proteins. Multiphase flow systems in microfluidic systems are used to study foam stability and polymer gelation. A new area of research our group has moved into is use new assembly methods to develop novel materials for batteries and solar technology.
