Research
The Takatori Lab combines theory and experiment to engineer soft materials with unusual physical properties and interfaces.
Many energy, environment, and human health applications demand precise control over length and time scales of physical and chemical processes. While many processes operate at thermodynamic equilibrium and are driven by forces that are thermal in nature (i.e., 'kT'), many biological systems have evolved the use of nonequilibrium forces to finely control how quickly, how often, and with what magnitude a physical or chemical process should occur. As chemical engineers, we strive to harness these design rules to enable fine control over transport phenomena, thermodynamics, and kinetics.
Engineering a dynamic interface
In nature, contact interfaces between adjacent cells are regulated by specialized membrane-tethered proteins that bind across opposing plasma membranes. To control mass and energy diffusion across these junctions, cells use molecular motors and biopolymers to push against the membrane to modulate the bonding strength between the adhesive membrane surfaces. These nonequilibrium forces enable cell assemblies to achieve exquisite control over bonding capabilities. A technology to achieve a similar level of hierarchical control over the surface bonding in synthetic materials may trigger the development of robust materials with selective fluid and energy transport functionalities. In our research, we aim to advance our basic understanding of self-assembly and emergent phenomena in membrane-based materials that are driven away from equilibrium, and use this understanding to achieve exquisite control over molecular bonding and hierarchical structures in synthetic materials.
To achieve a theory-driven synthesis of colloidal assemblies, our approach will combine analytical theory, MD simulations, and reconstitution experiments. A key feature of our problem is the multiscale, hierarchical coupling between macroscale colloidal dynamics and molecular interfacial dynamics.
Illustration by David S. Goodsell, the Scripps Research Institute
Molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate polymer brush dynamics.
Interaction between an immune cell and a target cell is an example of a "dynamic interface".
A gold standard of chemical and materials engineering is to understand how molecular arrangement and transport influence macroscopic, measurable quantities like strength, viscosity, toughness, and brittleness. That way, we know exactly how one should tune the molecular structure to achieve desired engineering performance. In this project, we study the transport dynamics of self-propelled active species within heterogeneous, porous, complex media. Our inspiration is the dynamics of living bacteria within mucus hydrogels or biofilms, which consist of highly entangled, crosslinked polysaccharise polymers, protein crosslinkers, lipids, and extracellular DNA. Through nature’s trial-and-error, living bacteria have optimized when, where, and how to tune their behavior within complex environments.
We combine hydrodynamic theories, statistical mechanics, and optical microscopy to develop a microscopic and mesoscale understanding of multiphase active particulate transport within complex materials.
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Experiments
Simulations
Dynamics of living particles in complex material environments
Molecular-level dynamics
Theory
Transport dynamics + Macroscopic material properties
Brief overview of research area:
Evolution of glassy-like colloidal suspensions
Use of nonconservative active forces for materials design
In soft materials, many important thermodynamic transitions are dominated and limited by kinetics; for example, crystallization, vitrification, smectic/nematic ordering, etc. Some thermodynamic phases can be impractical to explore because the microstructure is kinetically arrested and/or structural rearrangement is too slow when relying upon thermal Brownian forces alone. By injecting the material with a source of non-thermal active agitation, we aim to accelerate the formation of new materials and expand the range of what is possible to engineer.
Passive materials
Activity
Activity-derived materials
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Takatori SC*, De Dier R*, et al., Nat Commun, 2016.
Previous work: Swim Pressure of Active Matter
Developed a mechanical theory to understand stress generation in active matter suspensions. The 'swim pressure' has become a nice framework to understand many nonequilibrium phenomena in active systems.
Seminar at Caltech to the general scientific audience.
Our current work has taken quite a random walk from this initial work: