Mesoscale Phenomena in Fluid Systems

The term mesoscale, in this context, refers to length scales from nanometer (10^-9m) to 0.1 micrometer (10 ^-7 m). The OED definition of mesoscale is "of an intermediate scale". In this case we mean structure and behavior that is larger than the molecular scale traditionally studied by chemists and modeled using atomistic scale simulations (angstroms scale, 10^-10m), but too small to be seen (until recently) using experimental techniques, and too small to model using traditional continuum methods. Mesoscale phenomena control the properties and performance of a wide range of different materials, including what has recently become known as "soft condensed matter", amphiphilic (surfactant containing) fluids, colloids and polymers; and biological systems such as proteins and DNA.

The three day symposium was split into three sections:

1) Characterizing mesoscale structure and phenomena - use of diffraction methods, microscopy, micro-rheology etc.
2) Modeling mesoscale phenomena: all kinds of theoretical and simulation approaches
3) Applications - examples showing the importance of mesoscale phenomena, and how we seek to control it.

The organizers asked a number of industrial and academic researchers to give invited presentations in each section, information about the invited speakers is available here. We also recieved excellent submitted talks from all over the world.

An ACS Symposium Series book was written based on this event.





If you have any questions about this symposium please contact the organizer: Fiona Case ,  email fiona@casescientific.com