David Fairhurst

Biography

Dr Fairhurst was previously a Post-doctoral Researcher at The University of Edinburgh and Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. He was awarded his PhD in Physics from The University of Edinburgh and his BSc in Physics from Imperial College, London. He has also worked for the educational software company Crocodile Clips writing a range of online science educational materials.

Research Interest

Dr Fairhurst is interested in complex fluids and the behaviour of droplets on surfaces. He has supervised three PhD students to completion: David Willmer, Non-equilibrium polymeric complex fluids Kyle Baldwin, Novel pillar formation in evaporating poly(ethylene oxide) droplets Amgad Alrwaili, Measuring liquid pressure using bubbles as MRI contrast agents He currently supervises one Research Fellow and co-supervises a further four PhD students: Christopher Hamlett, Foam stability Yohanna Msambwa, Ring stain deposits from drying droplets Joe Brennan, Reduced drag over structured super-hydrophobic surfaces Emmanouil Papastavrou, Low temperature deposition modelling of hierarchical composite structures for applications in hard tissue engineering Edwin Abdurakman, Design and testing of novel microsphere-based contrast agents exploiting susceptibility anisotropy for magnetic resonance imaging. Research interests include: Evaporation of liquid droplets – Although a seemingly trivial problem there are many competing physical process taking place when a droplet of liquid is left to dry on a solid surface: evaporation and phase change, heat flow, convection currents, molecular diffusion, phase change, capillary flow, Marangoni flow to name a few. Understanding the evaporation process has implications for heat flow applications. Furthermore, if the droplet contains non-volatile components, these will eventually be deposited on the surface in various patterns, such as the commonplace coffee stain in which the dark coffee grains are predominantly deposited around the edge, the centre of the droplet being much paler in colour. Understanding and controlling the final deposit is important for many industries from printing to crop spraying. Dr Fairhurst's group were the first to discover that poly(ethylene oxide) deposits preferentially in the centre of the droplets, forming a pillar which can be taller than the initial droplet (for example see videos). Complex fluids – Most everyday liquids contain a range of various components, which can interact in complex ways. Many foods and drinks contain micron-sized colloidal particles; detergents and cleaning products contain surfactant molecules which have one water-loving end and the other oil-loving end; long chain polymer molecules are added to many products to give particular material and flow properties. The team's research in this broad field ranges from the phase behaviour of hard sphere colloidal suspensions, in particular the effect of polydispersity; the non-equilibrium behaviour and rheology of surfactant solutions; foam stability using novel molecules.