News

Balazs and Sen (with Peer Fischer from Germany) organized a special issue for Accounts of Chemical Research on the “Fundamental Aspects of Self-Powered Nano- and Micromotors” which encompasses 22 review articles by world renown experts on topics that highlight the key features of the CCMA.

The Hofmeister series determines the surface energy of the liposome with respect to different ion species in solution. The surface energy is responsible for positive or negative chemotactic migration.

2019 Langmuir Lectureship

Ayusman Sen was named a 2019 Langmuir Lecturer by the American Chemical Society. The ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry presents the Langmuir award annually at the American Chemical Society National Meeting.

ACS Symposium

Balazs and Emrick organized a symposium on topics core to the CCMA, titled “Autonomous Processes, Chemo-mechanics and Active Matter Involving Polymers and Soft Matter”, at the Spring 2019 American Chemical Society meeting in Orlando, FL. CCMA graduate students and postdocs helped to select speakers for this symposium and presented highlights of their research at the meeting.

CCMA work cited in Nature Research Highlights; Dec. 12, 2018

Figure from our article: Laskar, A., Shklyaev, O.E., and Balazs, A.C, “Designing Self-propelled, Chemically Active Sheets: Wrappers, Flappers and Creepers”, Sci. Adv., 4 (2018) eaav1745 (11 pages) showing the chemically-driven motion of a catalyst-coated flexible sheet in solution.

“Micro-robots powered by chemistry grasp and creep. Gel sheets immersed in liquid could crawl forward like inchworms” from Nature Research Highlights.

A Catalytic Flying Carpet

Chemical engineering researchers at Pitt develop self-powered microfluidic sheet that wraps, flaps and creeps

Building a Pump without Parts

NSF awards $1.8 million to Pitt establishing national center to develop nanoscale chemical reactions that drive fluid flow