Research fields
Statistical Mechanics
Soft-Condensed Matter
Colloid Physics
Computational Physics
Research interests
My interests range from the design of nano- and micron-sized colloids for the fabrication and optimization of smart materials to the understanding of equilibrium phenomena in biological systems. My expertise comprises both theoretical and numerical approaches to investigate the collective behaviors of appropriately developed models of soft-matter systems.
Heterogeneously charged colloids
Models of heterogeneously charged units can be seen as patchy particles with differently charged surface regions (and thus referred to as inverse patchy colloids). These features characterize experimental model systems as well as naturally occurring systems such as proteins and virus capsids.
Anisotropic patchy platelets
Two-dimensional materials with tunable properties have important applications at all length scales, ranging from the molecular to the colloidal regime. In this framework, the interplay between the anisotropy of the building blocks and well-defined bonding patterns might open tantalizing new perspectives.
Patchy Colloids
Conventional patchy particles are overall repulsive units with a fixed number of attractive regions acting as bonding sites; these bonding sites are fixed in a predefined geometry on the particle surface since they are due to the presence of chemical or physical surface patterns.