Joao T Cabral

Professor Joao Cabral’s Polymers & Microfluidics group is centred on experimental soft condensed matter. They study complex fluids, often multicomponent systems, containing polymers, copolymers, (nano)-particles and surfactants. Microfluidics provides unique opportunities to synthesise, formulate, process and analyse fluids and is therefore explored in their work.Additionally, the group employ extensively scattering (light, X-rays and neutrons), microscopy, calorimetry and spectroscopy – but they also develop their own measurement tools. Particularly, the group resort to novel combinatorial and high-throughput techniques to address problems with large parameter space where conventional experimentation becomes unfeasible. the Group has developped novel nano and microfabrication approaches using frontal photopolymerisation and self-assembly, with applications in microfluidics, functional and responsive materials.Research Phase behaviour Combinatorial polymer mixture (PS/PB) library and sequential 2D scattering pattern during spinodal decomposition.MicrofluidicsFluid thread breakup under microfluidic confinement with applications in oil recovery and biology.Surface patterningNano/micro-surface patterns, with tuneable amplitude, wavelength and topography (spinodal shown here), are readily induced by plasma oxidation and simultaneous multi-axial strain of elastomer membranes.