Electric double layers play central roles in countless technologies, from batteries to colloidal suspensions to membranes. The Squires group has coupled experiments, transport theory, and thermodynamics to delineate intrinsic scaling laws, mechanisms, and driving forces in these systems. Examples range from the charging of supercapacitor electrodes to the migration of charged particles and drops under chemical and electrostatic potential gradients, to active microrheological probes nonlinear rheological properties of complex fluids. In collaboration with the Shell group, they have used molecular dynamics simulations to directly test simple models for the electric double layer models that provide new ways to analyze and interpret experimental results.

On more mesoscopic scales, the Fredrickson group has been developing a broad suite of tools for computing potentials of mean force between surfaces separated by nanostructured complex fluids. This work is expected to guide the development of new colloidal and nanoparticle dispersions, important to a wide range of products including inks, coatings, cosmetics and personal care products.