Materials

For novel materials to be useful to society, they must be economical to manufacture. This is the reason why our departmental research efforts focus not only on the design and synthesis of materials at the molecular and nanometer scales (Biswal, Wong), but also on the development and optimization of processes to manufacture these materials for commercial applications (Mantzaris, Pasquali, Wong, Zygourakis).

The behavior of liquid-phase reactors and the rheological properties of nanostructured fluids are very important for large-scale production and processing of nanomaterials like quantum dots (Wong) or carbon nanotubes (Pasquali). Because many of the applications involve interfacial behavior, it is also important that we study the behavior of fluids at interfaces to improve separations, to enhance or limit molecular transport, and to develop chemical sensors for various applications.

The Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department has strong research efforts in many areas of materials research:

• design, synthesis, and processing of new materials (Wong),

• microfluidics and interfacial behavior of biomolecules (Biswal)
  

• modeling and optimization of particulate processes (Mantzaris, Chapman, Zygourakis),
  

• colloids and interfacial phenomena (Biswal, Miller, Hirasaki),
  

• rheology of nanostructured fluids (Pasquali), and
  

• interactions of particles in concentrated regimes (Pasquali, Wong) or in tightly confined spaces (Robert).

Energy

Facilities

CHEMICAL & BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING DEPT. MS-362
Rice University PO Box 1892 Houston, Texas 77251-1892	E-mail: chbe@rice.edu	Phone: (713) 348-4902 FAX:(713) 348-5478