Dr Mihail Popescu
Contact Details
Tel: +61 8 8302 5538
Fax: +61 8 8302 3683
Email: mihail.popescu@unisa.edu.au
Position
Senior
Research Fellow
Qualifications
MSc Bucharest, Romania PhD Emory, USA
Background
Mihail N Popescu is an applied theory physicist with complementary training
in numerical analysis. His PhD work was on modelling nucleation and growth
of clusters on surfaces in the early stages (submonolayer regime) of
homoepitaxial Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE). During a short postdoc
(June-December 2000) at Emory University, he investigated the use of
conformal mapping techniques in problems related to diffusion limited
aggregation. In 2001 he moved to the Max-Planck-Institute for Metal
Research, Stuttgart, Germany, joining as a research scientist the department
of ?Inhomogeneous Condensed Matter? lead by Prof. Dr. Rer. Nat. Siegrfried
Dietrich. The research in Stuttgart focused on microscopic models for the
dynamics of monolayer films, with a view on applications connected with nano-fluidics,
and on the theoretical description of reactive adsorbates on
catalyst-decorated substrates. Mihail joined the Ian Wark Research Institute
at the UniSA in 2007.
Research Interests
His present research interests are in the areas of:
- capillary flows and thin-film drainage in chemically heterogeneous environments (with a view on applications in micro- and nano-fluidics and in AFM measurements), here including questions related to the motion of the three phase contact line;
- theoretical models and applications of phoresis via self-generated concentration gradients.
- diffusion and attachment of small particles to interfaces in mineral flotation.
Supervisor - Available Postgraduate/Honours Projects
How do
ionic liquids interact with and wet surfaces (P)
Exploring
transport properties of engineered nanotube membranes (H)
Current Projects
Fluid Transport Processes Through Porous Media and in Microfluidics (AMSRI
4.3)
Selected Publications
Capillary Rise with Velocity Dependent Dynamic Contact Angle, M.N. Popescu,
J. Ralston, and R. Sedev, Langmuir, 24, 12710 (2008).
Dynamics of Wetting from an Experimental Point of View, J. Ralston, M.N.
Popescu, and R. Sedev, Ann. Rev. of Mat. Research 38, 23 (2008).
Model for Spreading of Liquid Monolayers, M.N. Popescu and S. Dietrich,
Phys. Rev. E 69, 061602 (2004) [cond-mat/0310768].
Diffusive spreading and mixing of fluid monolayers, M.N. Popescu and S.
Dietrich, J. Phys.: Condens. Matt. 17, S4189 (2005) [cond-mat/0506696].
Spreading in narrow channels, C. Dotti, A. Gambassi, M.N. Popescu, and S.
Dietrich, Phys. Rev. E 76, 041127 (2007).
Exactly Solvable Model of Monomer-Monomer Reactions on A Two-Dimensional
Random Catalytic Substrate, G. Oshanin, M.N. Popescu, and S. Dietrich,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 020602 (2004) [cond-mat/0311618 ].
Binary reactive adsorbate on a random catalytic substrate, M.N. Popescu, S.
Dietrich, and G. Oshanin, J. Phys.: Condens. Matt. 19, 065126 (2007) [cond-mat/0607825].
Anisotropic Diffusion Limited Aggregation, M.N. Popescu, H.G.E. Hentschel,
and F. Family, Phys. Rev. E 69, 061403 (2004) [cond-mat/0307489].
Rate-Equation Approach to Island Capture Zones and Size Distributions in
Epitaxial Growth, J.G. Amar, M.N. Popescu, and F. Family, Phys. Rev. Lett.
86, 3092 (2001).