Colloid and interface science is at the heart of all research at the Department of Bionanosciences.
Colloidal systems mix particles, droplets, or bubbles in a continuous medium. They cover an amazing range of everyday materials from milk to air pollution. The systems investigated at our department, from nanoparticle composites to biofilms and nutshells, are all colloidal systems. Highly engineered drug delivery vesicles and vaccine vectors are further examples of colloidal systems that interest our researchers. While colloidal systems span a size range from a few nanometers to millimeters, most biologically occurring and engineered colloidal mixtures contain nanosized objects.
Common for colloidal systems is also the strong influence of physical interactions from the interface between the particle and medium competing with thermal motion and gravity. The importance of interfacial interactions, especially for nanoscale colloidal systems, connects it to interface science.
In a broad sense, colloid and interface science unites all the research themes at the Department of Bionanosciences. In many projects, our focus is on understanding the colloidal and interfacial interactions of relevant biological or biomimetic systems. We also use this framework to broaden our understanding of problems traditionally being the domain of, e.g., cell- or microbiology.
