CENTER FOR COMPLEX PARTICLE SYSTEMS (COMPASS)

Nontechnical description:

A colloid is a mixture consisting of insoluble particles of one substance, suspended throughout another substance. The ability to shape such particle-based matter has been a central element in the development of human civilization. For example, Roman cement is a colloid that is still revealing the mysteries of its durability after two millennia.

Modern methods such as additive manufacturing and self-organization of particles allow for the fabrication of complex materials with unprecedented combinations of mechanical, electrical, biological, and chemical properties. The lack of a theoretical foundation to predict the properties of colloids as dynamic system of polydispersed particles forming complex structures, however, hinders discovery of novel materials critical for technological progress.

New ideas and approaches are therefore needed to correlate functionality with structural complexity. The Center for Complex Particle Systems (COMPASS) brings together a team of theoretical, experimental, and computational researchers to develop the science and technology necessary to establish a systems-level approach for particle-based matter. The Center will integrate diverse techniques such as graph theory and machine learning with advanced microscopy.

Through a focus on ‘imperfect’ systems, COMPASS aims to ignite a revolution in 3D printing and other forms of additive manufacturing with diverse particle systems. The transformative impact of COMPASS will be amplified by thrusts focused on educational, outreach, and entrepreneurship activities that provide opportunities for disadvantaged high school students, minorities and veterans.

Technical description:

COMPASS represents an integrative effort of addressing the knowledge gap of hierarchical structured materials by becoming a collaborative home for theoretical, experimental, and computational researchers who will together develop the science and technology of a systems-level approach for particle-based matter. This approach takes advantage of tools from the field of discrete mathematics known as graph theory and network theory that has been advanced in the past predominantly for application to social, economic, or networks-related disciplines.

COMPASS will enable graph and network theories to predict and control the complex behavior of strongly interacting colloidal particles capable of spontaneously producing static and dynamic networks and multiscale hierarchical structures with high complexity. The cross-pollination among mathematics, physical sciences and engineering disciplines describing particle-based matter as a complex system of non-ideal particles will enable a paradigmatic shift in the enduring problems associated with shaping matter.

The activities of the center span from the development of foundational methods to technology-enabling applications and are organized in four research-related thrusts. Thrust #1, Graph Theoretical Description of Colloids as Complex Systems, focuses on the methodology for a graph-based description of ensembles of particles with complex shapes and spatiotemporal arrangements for their subsequent use.

Thrust #2, Graph-Based Functionality Metrics for Colloidal Particle Systems, establishes relationships between graph representations of the structure of colloidal systems and their mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. Predictions will be validated using experimental and computational techniques with model particle systems at macro-, micro- and nanoscales.

Thrust #3, Pathways to Complex Particle Systems, develops pathways to complex particle systems by taking advantage of emergence, self-assembly, and criticality phenomena in ‘communities’ of strongly interacting polydisperse particles. Advances in previous thrusts come together in Thrust #4, Implementation of Complex Particle Systems. This thrust translates the cumulative knowledge acquired in the preceding tasks to case studies of complex particle systems that transport physical quantities directly related to the dynamic connectivity of diverse readily accessible particles suitable for additive manufacturing.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.