Seminar location: A2.05B
There will be an informal sandwich lunch outside D2.02 at 12.30.

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Title: Uncovering molecular transport mechanisms by counting with colloids

Dr. Alice Thorneywork, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford

Abstract: Sensitively controlling transport across membranes is central to many technologies, from biomedical sensors and desalination devices to the emerging field of iontronics. Rational design of porous materials with specific transport properties represents an ongoing challenge, however, partly because unambiguously elucidating transport mechanisms in molecular level experiments is very difficult. Valuable insights can thus be provided by experimental models that display analogous physical behaviour but are experimentally much more accessible. Importantly, such systems allow us to explore both collective, many particle effects and the single particle behaviours and fluctuations that give rise to them.

In this talk, I will discuss our work using experimental soft matter models at the mesoscale to elucidate details of confined transport processes, and in particular to understand the nature of fluctuations in these systems. I will first share some recent results taking a fresh look at fluctuations in equilibrium colloidal monolayers. Here, we have combined experiment, simulation and theory to explore how simply counting colloids can reveal details of self and collective dynamics, uncovering a surprising hydrodynamic enhancement of collective diffusion [1]. I will then discuss ongoing work to extend this understanding to driven systems [2,3], with the long-term goal of elucidating characteristic fluctuations in our synthetic nanopore experiments [4].

[1] E. K. R. Mackay, B. Sprinkle, S. Marbach, A. L. Thorneywork, Phys. Rev. X (2024) arXiv:2311.00647

[2] S. F. Knowles, A. L. Thorneywork et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, 34, 344001 (2022)

[3] S. F. Knowles, E. K. R. Mackay, A. L. Thorneywork, J. Chem. Phys., (2024), arXiv:

[4] S. F. Knowles, A. L. Thorneywork et al., Phys. Rev. Lett, 127, 137801, (2021)

Bio: Alice Thorneywork is an Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry and Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry and DPhil in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and was awarded the 2019 RSC Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics Group Young Scientist Award for her doctoral research. In 2016, Alice moved to the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge where she began her independent research career first as an Oppenheimer Research Fellow and then a Royal Society University Research Fellow. In 2022, Alice returned to the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford, to take up her current position.