Piece description from the artist
Structured fluid is a small drawing of micellar domains transitioning into a layered phase. Micelles are similar to soap. There are molecules that have two separate sections, attached to each other by a chemical covalent bond. There is a small "head" group, which is usually polar. The head group dissolves in and mixes well with water and polar liquids. This head is attached to a long "tail" fat or hydrocarbon. The tail mixes well with oils, hydrocarbons, or even polymers, depending on the chemistry. Molecules that have a chemically distinct head and tail that each mix with different types of chemistries are called amphiphiles.
In soap, amphiphiles form little dynamic capsules that hold greasy particles and molecules with their oil-loving tails. The tails point inside the capsule and dissolve and hold oil and dirt. The amphiphile heads point outside the capsule, and stay mixed in water. This behavior allows amphiphiles to float oils away down the drain.
Many of these amphiphiles can also form ordered patterns within water. These patterns change as the concentration of the amphiphiles increases. These changing patterns are a type of liquid crystalline order, called lyotropic liquid crystallinity. (Lyotropic means concentration dependent). Lyotropic liquid crystals have different flow properties from ordinary liquids, but the structures inside the liquids are very delicate and easily break apart (and also reform fairly easily).
The amphiphilic molecules that encapsulate the domains are represented as a black circle (head) and squiggly line (tail). "Oily" phase polymer is red intersecting squiggles inside the domains, mixed with the amphiphile tails. The polar solvent is represented with blue stippling
Dr. Regina Valluzzi has an extensive scientific background in nanotechnology and biophysics. She has been a scientist in the chemical industry, a green chemistry researcher, a research professor at the engineering school at Tufts, a start-up founder engaged in technology commercialization, and a start-up and commercialization consultant.
Even during periods of intense activity as a scientist, Dr. Valluzzi has always held a strong interest in the visual arts and in visual information. While she majored in Materials Science at MIT, she also obtained a second degree in music and a minor in visual studies. Visual arts have managed to permeate her technical work; during her Ph.D in Polymer Science and Engineering at UMass Amherst, she completed a thesis that required advanced electron microscopy, image analysis, and theoretical data modeling. These experiences provided the visual insight and information that now influences much of her artwork.
Dr. Valluzzi’s work has been included in private collections across the US, UK, Germany, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Dubai and Malta, and in the corporate collection of "Seyfarth Shaw" Boston law offices around Boston. She has a selection of pieces on loan to the MIT Materials Science and Engineering Department as indoor public art. Her accomplishments include having published thirty articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, having made several scientific patents, having been a subject matter expert for an encyclopedia chapter, and having been invited to speak at science talks across the US, Europe, and Japan.
Her newsletter is a good source of ongoing information: http://eepurl.com/daiLQ
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