{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108705"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108705","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Imaging the dynamics of soft materials at microscale and nanoscale","abstract":"Soft materials are materials that are soft. They can usually be deformed easily by thermal stresses or thermal fluctuations at about room temperature, which makes their dynamic behaviors of great interest and importance. In this thesis, imaging tools such as bright-field and dark-field optical microscopes and liquid-phase transmission electron microscope, have been utilized to capture the dynamics of three distinct yet typical soft materials in situ at different length scales: colloids, polymeric chains, and nanobubbles. While conventional interests have been focused on the equilibrium structures and properties of soft materials, we explore their non-equilibrium dynamics under external driving forces or agitations, such as electric fields, chemical gradients, and electron beam irradiation. Image processing, single particle tracking, and statistical analysis are combined to study the rich phenomena we observed.","abstract_html":"Soft materials are materials that are soft. They can usually be deformed easily by thermal stresses or thermal fluctuations at about room temperature, which makes their dynamic behaviors of great interest and importance. In this thesis, imaging tools such as bright-field and dark-field optical microscopes and liquid-phase transmission electron microscope, have been utilized to capture the dynamics of three distinct yet typical soft materials in situ at different length scales: colloids, polymeric chains, and nanobubbles. While conventional interests have been focused on the equilibrium structures and properties of soft materials, we explore their non-equilibrium dynamics under external driving forces or agitations, such as electric fields, chemical gradients, and electron beam irradiation. Image processing, single particle tracking, and statistical analysis are combined to study the rich phenomena we observed.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Xu, Cong"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Materials Science & Engr","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Granick, Steve","Chen, Qian","Zuo, Jian-Min","Statt, Antonia"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-10-07T22:49:59Z","date_published":"2020-10-07T22:49:59Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:48Z","subjects":["Soft Materials","Janus Colloids","Active Matter","Nanobubble"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2020 Cong Xu"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108705","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Granick, Steve","Chen, Qian","Zuo, Jian-Min","Statt, Antonia"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Xu, Cong"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2020-10-07T22:49:59Z","2022-10-07T22:50:13Z","2020-07-16","2020-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Materials Science & Engr"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Soft Materials","Janus Colloids","Active Matter","Nanobubble"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2020 Cong Xu"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108705"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Soft materials are materials that are soft. They can usually be deformed easily by thermal stresses or thermal fluctuations at about room temperature, which makes their dynamic behaviors of great interest and importance. In this thesis, imaging tools such as bright-field and dark-field optical microscopes and liquid-phase transmission electron microscope, have been utilized to capture the dynamics of three distinct yet typical soft materials in situ at different length scales: colloids, polymeric chains, and nanobubbles. While conventional interests have been focused on the equilibrium structures and properties of soft materials, we explore their non-equilibrium dynamics under external driving forces or agitations, such as electric fields, chemical gradients, and electron beam irradiation. Image processing, single particle tracking, and statistical analysis are combined to study the rich phenomena we observed.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2022-08-01","The student, Cong Xu, accepted the attached license on 2020-07-15 at 09:15.","The student, Cong Xu, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-07-15 at 09:18.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-07-16 at 15:49.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15627 on 2020-10-02 at 15:50:50","Made available in DSpace on 2020-10-07T22:49:59Z (GMT). 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They can usually be deformed easily by thermal stresses or thermal fluctuations at about room temperature, which makes their dynamic behaviors of great interest and importance. In this thesis, imaging tools such as bright-field and dark-field optical microscopes and liquid-phase transmission electron microscope, have been utilized to capture the dynamics of three distinct yet typical soft materials in situ at different length scales: colloids, polymeric chains, and nanobubbles. While conventional interests have been focused on the equilibrium structures and properties of soft materials, we explore their non-equilibrium dynamics under external driving forces or agitations, such as electric fields, chemical gradients, and electron beam irradiation. Image processing, single particle tracking, and statistical analysis are combined to study the rich phenomena we observed.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2022-08-01","The student, Cong Xu, accepted the attached license on 2020-07-15 at 09:15.","The student, Cong Xu, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2020-07-15 at 09:18.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2020-07-16 at 15:49.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15627 on 2020-10-02 at 15:50:50","Made available in DSpace on 2020-10-07T22:49:59Z (GMT). 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