Super-resolution imaging of transport in complex materials: chromatography and the extracellular matrix

Super-resolution imaging and other fluorescence techniques have become seminal tools for scientists due to their ability to resolve heterogeneity and features normally obscured in traditional diffraction limited imaging. Super-resolution imaging has been optimized for and enabled important findings in molecular biophysics and catalysis, yet, super-resolution microscopy techniques have had limited use in the study of man-made materials and materials outside of the cell. From a macroscale engineering perspective, many materials are optimized empirically to decide what con­ditions work “best,” resulting in little understanding of the chemistry behind why the selected conditions perform the way they do. On the other hand, super-resolution microscopy of materials has focused on model, fundamental systems: materials simplified to have only a few components so they can be well-described by statistical models, but far from conditions for their intended use. In this talk I will present studying molecular diffusion in soft materials relevant to liquid chromatographic separations and the extracellular matrix with super-resolution imaging, along with progress towards studying materials that are realistic, multi-component, and complex to connect fundamental molecular observations to industrial interests.