Wuge Briscoe research group

SOFT MATTER is everywhere...

...and particularly @interfaces, where it readily tailors interfacial properties and mediates desired inter-surface interactions (i.e. surface forces and friction). Common soft matter systems include polymers, surfactants (or lipids), liquid crystals, colloids and nanofluids. Understanding their properties is of vital importance to industry and many biological processes, such as personal care products, tribology, biolubrication, functional materials, nanotoxicity, cell adhesion, bacterial membranes & antimicrobial action, and membrane fusion. Under confinement, soft matter exhits fascinating behaviours that are different from those in the bulk. Self-assembly and stimuli-responsiveness are other ingeneities that soft matter elegantly displays. Soft matter is also intricately related to nanoparticles and nanostructures, facilitating their synthesis and stabilisation, and also mediates interactions between nanostructed or nanotextured surfaces increasingly encountered in nanotechnology.

Final year projects

Our science needs you

News

Vanishing Air-Bubble Layer &Ion Adsorption on Graphene in Aqueous Media - Liangzhi's Carbon paper featured in Science Trends.
Oct 2019: Bhavesh, Gang, Charlotte, & Lauren scatter neutrons on bacterial membranes @SANS2D.
Oct 2019: Wuge speaks @Surface Analysis 2019.
Sep 2019: Lauren, Xueying, & Nick perform our first neutron diffraction experiment on the mysterious SDS lamellar fibres @NIMROD with Tristan.
Sep 2019: Charlotte (strikes back!) returns as a PhD student, working with P&G Brussels. Xueying joins as China Scholarship Council PhD student.
Sep 17th 2019: Karl Bracekmann (P&B Brussels) visits - kick-off meeting for Charlotte's PhD project.
Sep 2019: Ben, Dajana, Holly, & Magda perform XRR @DESY P08.
Sep 2019: Ben, Bhavesh, Dajana, Gang, Joana, Lauren, & Nick present @ECIS2019 in Leuven, Belgiam.
Sep 4th 2019: Klemen Bohinc (University of Ljubjana) visits & gives a seminar on "Interactions between Charged Surfaces Mediated by Charged Nanoparticles".
Sep 2019: Lauren & Michael perform SANS @ILL D11 with lovely Ralf.
Aug 2019: Ben, Lauren, Dajana, & Micahel survie the German canteen while performing XRR @DESY P08.
July 2019: Michael won the Best Poster Prize at M4 Colloids 2019.
July 2019: Dajana leads a nanofocused XRD experiment on synthetic fibres used in P&G nappies at Diamond I14.
June 2019: Wuge to deliver a Keynote at Bubbles & Drops 2019 in Sofia.
June 2019: Lorena joins from Mexico as a visiting scholar for 3 months.
Very busy June: Lauren, Dajana, Holly, Luisa, Anna, Sarah, Silvia, Ben, Bhavesh, Michael, & Nick perform SANS/XRR at DESY/LLB/ISIS.
Jun 2019: Sarah won best talk prize (runners-up) at Bristol Organic & Biological Chemistry PhD talks.
May 2019: Laura awarded the Best Communicated Exhibit at Research without Borders Festival.
May 2019: Laura speaks at CBMNet meeting on Industrial Biotechnology at the Cell Membrane.
May 2019: Wuge speaks at ISIS Deuteration Meeting organised by Dr Peixun Li (& is determined to hug Bob Thomas again).
May 2019: Lauren leads another XRR Diamond I07 experiments.
Apr 2019: Patryk's Langmuir paper on Bénard–Marangoni Dendrites highlighted as a front cover.
Apr 19th: Double birthday celebration for Dajana & Gang @ Diamond experiment!
Apr 2019: Lauren & Dajana lead two Diamond I07 experiments (GSK self-assembly in H-bonding rich solvents & P&G Sensation of touch projects).
Mar 2019: Roise awarded Fibrelean Best Final Year Project Talk Prize.
Mar 2019: Joana, Silvia & Wuge attend MSCA-ITN BioClean F2F meeting at Siena, whose beauty rivalled Florence during the Renaissance.
Feb 2019: Eloise & Liangzhi glamorously graduate @Wills Memorial Hall!
Feb 2019: Sarah, Lauren, & Joana shed neutrons on Sarah's "sweet" nanogels and hydrogels @ ISIS SANS2D with Sarah Rogers.
Jan 2019: Dr Gang Wang joins as a Marie Curie Fellow from Chinese Academy of Sciences in Ningbo, by the Qiantang River.
Jan 2019: Two XRR experiments at Diamond I07 by two teams (Lauren, Laura, Dajana, & Anna) and (Luisa, Ben, Bhavesh, & Holly).
Jan 2019: Patryk defends his PhD thesis (vs. Colin Bain of Durham & Jeroen).
Dec 2018: Laura, Iril, Joana won prizes at SoftMatter@Interfaces 2MT (2 min thesis) pre-Xmas lunch presentations from the judging panel, Prof. Andrew Orr-Ewing FRS, Emeritus Prof. Brian Vincent, & Dr Tim Snow (Diamond).
Dec 2018: Luisa (of Mexico) weds James (of England)!
Dec 2018: Laura, Ben, Lauren, & Holly perform high pressure SAXS @Diamond.
Dec 2018: Wuge lectures thermodynamics to newly qualified chemistry school teachers at the Prince's Teaching Institute (PTI).
Dec 2018: Dajana, Patrk, Anna perform Microfocused XRD @PSI (Switzerland) on Dajana's synthetic fibres (EPSRC P&G CASE).
Nov 2018: Wuge gives seminar @ Warwick Soft Condensed Matter & Biophysics (hosted by Simone Coppola & Steve Williams, 2 wonderful PhD students).
Nov 2018: Dr Bhavesh Bharatiya joins as a Marie Curie fellow from Dharmsinh Desai University in India.
Nov 2018: Wuge gives seminar @ Edinburgh Chemistry (hosted by Dr Adam Kirrander and Prof. Phil Camp).
Nov 2018: Eloise defends her MSc (by Research) thesis (vs. Prof. Paul Luckham, Imperial College, & Jonathan Reid).
Nov 2018: Liangzhi defends her MSc (by Research) thesis (vs. Prof. Magdalena Titrici, Imperial College, & Jeroen vD).
Oct 2018: Ben, Laura, Michael, Nick & Wuge perform XRR at DESY Petra II P08 (Hamburg) & try in vain to appreciate the German definition of Canteen...
Oct 2018: Michael, Nick & Wuge attend Infineum consortium meeting on friction & wear in Birmingham.
Oct 2018: Mieke Kljein (Wageningen) visits Bristol to transfer Hon. Sec & Treasurer of IACIS to Wuge, who was "volunteered" by the Germans...
Sep 2018: Holly Stockdale (Master by Research) & Michael Stevenson (PhD in Chemistry) join the group!
Sep 2018: Anna, Laura, Lauren, Luisa, Magda, Nick, Sara, & Silvia + Wuge attends ECIS2018 in Ljubljana.
Sep 2018: Wuge delivers invited talk at 18th International Pharmaceutical Technology Symposium (18th IPTS) in Antalya (close to where Seljuk Turks defeated Byzantines in the Battle of Manzikert on 26 Aug 1071).
Aug 2018: Wuge gives invited talk at Debugging Nanobio-interfaces to promote clinical translation symposium organised by incredibly handsome & hospitable Prof. Roland Stauber at University of Mainz, Germany.
July 2018: Wuge attends British Biophysical Society meeting in Southampton.
July 2018: Silvia & Wuge attend MSCA-ITN BioClean summer school & mid-term review at University of Ghent, Belgium.
July 2018: Dajana leads a nanofocused XRD at Diamond I14.
June 2018: Nick leads an XRR experiment at Diamond I07.
June 2018: Wuge lectures at 2018 Advanced School in Soft Condensed Matter: “Solutions in the Spring” in Bristol, organised by Prof. Tannie Liverpool (Bristol) & Dr Anita Zeidler (Bath).
June 2018: Wug attends 92nd ACS Colloids at Penn Sate (& has ice cream with charming William Ducker.
June 2018: Wuge gives invited talk at Soft Matter+ Day at University of Twente (& meets Wiebe & Saskia's little Dutch pirates).