Elina Gilbert

I am a CEA researcher-engineer at SPEC lab in Paris-Saclay.

I am interested in the relationship between the morphology and physical properties of complex materials, especially regarding the influence of mechanical dissipations.
I am trained as a soft matter physicist.

I also love to tell stories, be it about science through outreach, or fictions through theatre, or by reading the fairy tale books I am collecting !

Experimental techniques proficiency

Rheometry

Viscosimetry
Oscillatory rheology
Expertise on soft dispersed systems such as emulsions and suspensions
DMA

Tensile experiments

Tack/JKR adhesion testing
Pre-notch fracture propagation
Traction-Compression

X-ray scattering

WAXD, SAXS
Experience on analysis of X-ray scattering on polymers

Confocal microscopy

Tribology

3-pins on disk

Current research project:

Fracture resistance of ultra-rigid metamaterials

Mechanical metamaterials are engineered materials whose mechanical properties will be defined more by their structure than by their base material. Think about those colorful expanding beach ball, whose clever folds render them auxetic: they expand in every directions, rather than have a direction for expansion and two for contraction.

One class of mechanical metamaterials can be described as networks of small beams, leading to mainly empty ultralight materials. One issue, however, is that the more material you take out from a solid, the less rigid it becomes. SPHYNX group has proposed a structure that allows for a proportional decrease of the elastic modulus, rather than a quadratic one, and I want to add heterogeneities in this solution to improve its fracture resistance.

Other work experiences

Science communication at Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie

Presentation of different scientific concepts to a wide audience through simple and participative experiments, conception of new presentations, participation to nationwide outreach events such as Fête de la Science or Nuit des Etoiles.

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Formation

Biophysics MD, Université Paris Diderot

Basics in biocell, neurosciences, statistical physics, biophysics, soft matter, active matter, optical imagery and non-linear dynamic physics.

Engineering MD with specialization in Physical Chemistry, ESPCI

Solid lab work practice, with 15h/week training during two years.
Wide array of scientific subjects studied in depths, ranging from physiology to statistical physics, with an insistance on soft matter sciences and a specialization in physical-chemistry.

Research experience

PDRA:

Structure-rheology and tribology-texture link for soy-cow blended drinks
IHAC team, SayFood, AgroParisTech, INRAE

In the case of soy-based beverages, and other food colloids, important texture descriptors are graininess, creaminess, and astringency. These properties are influenced by product rheology and tribology, which depend on the structure of the suspensions. Blended soy-cow beverages aim at improving the taste and texture compared to soy beverages. These products are solid suspensions in an oil/water emulsion, whose overall stability depends on the proportion of the different fats and proteins in solution. We study the morphology of such drinks while varying the type of fat in the emulsion. We link these morphologies to rheological and tribological properties measured on a biomimetic surface developed in the group, as well as to sensory profiling.

PhD:

Rheology of solid emulsions
MMOI team, LPS Orsay

My PhD was on the subject of emulsions of polymer whose matrix was crosslinked to create "solid emulsions" with liquid inclusions. The primary aim of this study is to decorrelate the variations of the storage and loss moduli with regards to parameters intrinsic to the emulsion, such as the volume fraction, the elasto-capillary number, or the moduli of the continuous and dispersed phases.Thus, I performed various rheological and structural characterizations of the many samples I generated with different methods during this project.

Internships:

Magnetic microgels for single-cell study in droplet microfluidics
MMBM lab, Institut Curie

Formulating non-cytotoxic magnetized microgels to be used in droplet microfluidics.

Cyclic fatigue of tough double network elastomers
SIMM lab, ESPCI

Pre-notched tensile experiments in cyclic fatigue at different deformation levels to study the crack propagation speed, comparison to Lake-Thomas model. Observation of the creack head with confocal microscopy.

Morphology - mechanical properties of polypropylene pipes as a function of the extrusion speed
SABIC Limbourg

WAXD and SAXS experiment to study the different polymorphisms, as well as crystallinity characterization through calorimetry. Comparison of the morphological data to factory mechanical characterization and extrusion settings.

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