DATE / TIME: Monday, November 30th 2015, 4:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Seminar-Raum FH gelb 09, Freihaus, TU Wien, 9. Stock gelb (formerly known as 138C)
ABSTRACT:
So-called ”active matter” – materials composed of building blocks that
are persistently driven out of thermodynamic equilibrium by the conversion
of fuel into directed motion – exhibits many phenomena that are not present
in equilibrium materials. In this talk, I will give examples of how these
out-of-equilibrium forces can be harnessed for achieving new self-assembly
strategies of ”active colloids”, with potential applications both for swimming
microorganisms and synthetic ”microswimmers”. I will furthermore show how
studying relatively simple active matter model systems can help us construct
novel ”thermodynamic” principles for describing phase equilibria in a regime
where equilibrium thermodynamics becomes invalid.