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Soft Matter

Explore Soft Matter being performed at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Learn More about Soft Matter
NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg

Overview

The Soft Matter Discipline studies binary mixtures that consist of liquid-solid, liquid-liquid or model liquid-gas phases. Research areas include colloidal systems, liquid crystals, foams, gels, emulsions and granular flows. This program includes soft condensed matter themes that span a variety of physical states that are easily deformed by thermal stresses or thermal fluctuations. In microgravity, sedimentation and convection masking effects are removed so that the interaction of the dispersed phase and the dispersion medium can be observed on a timescale not available on Earth.

Recent Soft Matter Experiments

Archived Soft Matter Experiments

NASA Glenn History of Soft Matter Timeline

Pre-ISS experiments

  • Colloidal Disorder/Order Transition (CDOT)
    • CDOT-1 Dates 1995
    • CDOT-2 Dates 1998
  • Physics of Hard Spheres Experiment (PHASE) Dates 1997
  • Colloidal Gelation (CGEL) Dates 1998
  • Binary Colloidal Alloy Test(s) (BCAT) 1, 2 Dates 1996 (BCAT1) and 1997(BCAT2)
  • Extensional Rheology Experiment (ERE) Dates 7/2000

Start of ISS Experiment

  • Physics of Colloids in Space (PCS) Dates 4/2001 – 3/2002
  • Investigating the Structures of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE)
    • InSPACE 1 Dates 2003
    • InSPACE 2 Dates 2008 and 2009
    • InSPACE 3 Dates 2013
  • Shear History Extensional Rheology Experiment (SHERE)
    • SHERE 1 Dates 2008
    • SHERE 2 Dates 2011
  • Binary Colloidal Alloy Test(s) (BCAT)
    • BCAT-3 Dates 11/2005 – 1/2006
    • BCAT-4 Dates 10/2009
    • BCAT- 5 Dates 10/2010 – 3/2011
    • BCAT-6 Dates 5/2012 – 7/2012
    • BCAT 5 led to ACE-T4
  • Pre-Advanced Colloids Experiment (PACE)
    • PACE
  • LMM system check out test, not a science experiment
    • PACE – 2 Dates 8/2011-12/2011
  • Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands In Space (OASIS)​ Dates 6/2015-3/2016
  • Advanced Colloids Experiment – Microscopy (ACE-M)
    • ACE-M1 Dates 3/2013, 6/2013 – 10/2013, 4/2014
    • ACE-M2 Dates 6/2014-9/2014
      • M2R 8/2018 and 9/2019
    • ACE-M3 Dates 11/2014-5/2015
  • Advanced Colloids Experiment – Heated (ACE-H)
    • ACE-H1 Dates 6/2015
    • ACE-H2 Dates 1/2016-3/2016
  • Advanced Colloids Experiment – Temperature Controlled (ACE-T)
    • ACE-T1 – Janus Particles Dates 9/2016 – 1/2017, 4/2017, 9/2021 – 10/2021
    • ACE-T2 – Critical Casimir Forces Dates 8/2018 – 10/2018, 4/2021-6/2021
    • ACE-T4 – Colloidal Gel Dates 5/2020 – 9/2020
    • ACE-T5 – Bijels Dates 11/2019 – 1/2020, 7/2021 – 8/2021
    • ACE-T6 – Colloidal Stabilizers Dates 2/2018 – 4/2018, 10/2019 – 11/2019
    • ACE-T7 – Cubes Dates 5/2018 – 6/2018, 11/2018
    • ACE-T9 – Magnetic Chains Dates 4/2018, 8/2021 – 9/2021
    • ACE-T10 – Colloidal Gel Dates 6/2019 – 9/2019
    • ACE-T11 – Hard Spheres Dates 11/2020 – 12/2020, 6/2021 – 7/2021
    • ACE-T12 – Nanoparticle Haloing Dates 5/2019 – 6/2019, 2/2021 – 4/2021
    • ACE-TR – Ellipsoids Dates 9/2020 – 10/2020, 1/2021 – 2/2021
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