Matthew Liberatore
Associate Professor
Research Description
Understanding the flow of complex fluids leads to the engineering of new materials and products for oil recovery and bioenergy as well as personal care and tissue engineering. The group focuses on the rheology of complex and multiphase fluids including biomass slurries, bio-oils, entangled polymer and polyelectrolyte solutions for drag reduction, surfactants and self assembly in solution, electrospinning polymer nanofibers, hydrate and ice slurries, emulsions, heavy crude oils, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurries, polymer membranes for fuel cells, poylmer-graphene composites, and other energy-related fluids.
Teaching Interests
Developing and implementing active and self directed learning tools are critical to effective 21st century engineering education. Specifically, YouTube Fridays has students create new course content based on videos. Education publications are available at rheology.mines.edu/teaching.html.
selected Publications
N. C. Crawford, S. K. R. Williams, D. Boldridge, M. W. Liberatore. “Shear thickening of chemical mechanical polishing slurries under high shear”, Rheologica Acta, 51 (2012): 637-647.
N. B. Wyatt, C. M. Gunther, M. W. Liberatore. “Increasing Viscosity in Entangled Polyelectrolyte Solutions by the Addition of Salt”, Polymer, 52 (2011): 2437-2444. DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2011.03.053
M. W. Liberatore. “YouTube Fridays: Engaging the Net Generation in five minutes a week”, Chemical Engineering Education, 44 (2010): 215-221.
C. M. Roche, C. J. Dibble, J. S. Knutsen, J. J. Stickel, M. W. Liberatore. “Material and rheological properties of biomass slurries during enzymatic hydrolysis at high-solids loadings” Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 104 (2009): 290-300.
H. Dave, F. Gao, J.-H. Lee, M. Liberatore, C.-C. Ho, C. Co. “Self-Assembly in Sugar-Oil Complex Glasses” Nature Materials, 6 (2007): 287-290.