Nanotechnology in Soft Materials: Introduction and Application for Cosmetics, Foods, Personal Care, Pharmaceutical and Oil Industries

Nanotechnology applications into Soft Materials containing colloids, surfactants, proteins and block copolymers have an extremely large range of industrial uses. Soft materials contain nanometer to micron size structures, which can be designed in an increasingly wide range of shapes. Their properties are determined by these soft nanostructures, and can be remarkably different to the properties of the unstructured materials. One big advantage of these soft materials is that under suitable conditions the molecules they contain will self-assembly to form nanoscale structure, often with little or no energy input.

This tutorial will provide an introduction to nanotechnology in soft materials (also known as colloid science, mesoscale phenomena, soft matter physics, complex fluids, or polymer science!). We will highlight current and potential applications in cosmetics, foods, paint, soaps and detergents, pharmaceutical delivery, the oil industry; and also the use of self-assembled soft nanostructured materials to create hard nanoparticles, or to create hard nanoscale structures on surfaces. We will discuss the empirical rules that are used to select molecules, or combinations of molecules, which will self-assemble into particular structures, and the latest developments in analytical techniques for characterizing soft nanostructured materials.

This tutorial will provide an excellent introduction to the presentations in the special Nanotech2005 symposium on Nanostructured Fluids, Soft Materials, and Self-Assembly – which will provide many more examples of the applications of soft nanostructured materials.

Who Should Attend

This course is an introductory- to intermediate- level course suitable for anyone interested in nanotechnology in soft materials. The audience will typically include the practicing engineers in R&D, industrial scientists on a decision-making, academic researchers, IP lawyers, venture capital investors, and policy makers.

Course Instructor

Fiona Case has more than 15 years experience in industrial polymer and surfactant science, she is the founder of Case Scientific providing contract research and consultancy in this area, and the editor of the recent ACS Symposium Series book “Mesoscale Phenomena in Fluid Systems”. Further information about Fiona’s research, her biographic, and her publication list, can be found at the Case Scientific website.

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