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Reactive liquid interfaces
Our goal is to control the properties of liquid interfaces (stability of a foam, spreading of a liquid on a surface) by using ‘reactive’ amphiphilic molecules. I will give two examples :
Photo-responsive bubbles, films and foams. We use surfactants which change their shape under UV light. The light intensity enables to control the number of adsorbed surfactants at the air-water interface hence to obtain a remote control of surface flows as well as foam destabilization.
Assembly of polymer multi-layers at the oil-water interface for encapsulation.
We study the self-assembly of polymer multi-layers at the oil-water interface to form a rigid membrane. We show that the type and strength of interactions between the polymer layers (electrostatic, hydrogen bonds as well as hydrophobic interactions) enables to control the rheological properties of the membranes.