A new plasma-based technique could give scientists precise, on-demand control over when and where a liquid turns into a gel. Gels are everywhere—in food, cosmetics, drug-delivery systems, and batteries—but current methods for making them are blunt instruments. They offer little control over the gel’s final properties, and the self-assembly process is notoriously difficult to steer across different timescales and spatial scales. This project aims to replace that imprecision by using non-equilibrium plasma—an electrically charged gas—to trigger gelation. The researchers will build a versatile plasma source, characterise both the plasma and the resulting gels, and use experimental data plus numerical modelling to understand exactly how plasma induces gelation. If it works, the technique would allow scientists to rapidly explore a vast range of gel formulations with minimal cost and effort, and to create unusual structures such as patterned, localised, or shaped gels. This is fundamental science—there is no immediate consumer product here—but the ability to synthesise bespoke gels on demand could eventually transform industries that rely on soft materials, from pharmaceuticals to electronics. Every UK university with a soft-matter group stands to benefit from the new capability.
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Gels are incredibly versatile materials, found in common everyday items from food to personal care products, as well as in sophisticated applications such as drug delivery and battery technology. There are many ways of making gels, yet current techniques typically lack precision, providing a limited level of control over a narrow range of achievable properties. There is no easy or obvious approach to control the self-assembly process given that it extends across vast temporal and spatial scales. Our ambition is to explore the science underpinning an entirely new approach to trigger and control gelation using non-equilibrium plasma. Our vision is to exploit the underpinning science to establish a plasma-based technique for gel synthesis, providing an unprecedented level of control over the gelation process, spatially and temporally. This technique will facilitate a transformative step, enabling the rapid exploration of the parametric space of a wide range of gels with minimal cost and effort. The project is split into the following specific objectives: 1. Development of a highly versatile plasma source capable of activating solutions over a wide range of operation conditions. 2. Experimental characterisation of the plasma source as well as the synthesised gels. 3. Understanding the plasma induced-gelation mechanisms utilising experimental characterisation data and advanced numerical modelling. 4. Use this understanding of the plasma-based synthesis process to prepare unusual gels including patterned, localised and shaped gels. Ultimately, our approach will enable the on-demand synthesis of bespoke gels with tailored properties. Our methods will impact numerous industries based on soft matter as well as significant impact in academia where a group of soft matter or complex fluids exists in almost every university in the UK.
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