The combination of educating students with doing research inspires me. I want to reveal relations between the nanoworld and physical properties in liquids, such as phase stability and complex structures.

Remco Tuinier heads the Physical Chemistry group which is active in the field of polymeric and/or colloidal liquids and (modified) advanced surfaces. An integrated experimental-theoretical program is being developed focusing on

• the interactions in and phase behavior of colloidal and colloid–polymer mixtures;
• the modification and functionalization of surfaces; and
• self-assembly of complex systems.

This is combined with the recently revised and strengthened physical chemistry education at TU/e. Tuinier strives to promote polymer science connections between the different departments at TU/e: Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics and Chemical Engineering & Chemistry.

In his research Tuinier aims at gaining understanding of the physical properties of matter and of (chemical) processes by combining experiments and theory. Applied experimental techniques are small-angle X-ray, neutron and light scattering, electron, confocal and light microscopy, polymer and colloid synthesis, rheology, and interfacial methods. Theoretical tools used by the group are self-consistent field computations and statistical thermodynamics, both for predicting phase behaviour and structural thermodynamic interfacial and bulk properties of colloidal and/or polymeric mixtures. The focus is on four related, and overlapping subthemes:

i.    assembly of colloids and polymers;
ii.   polymers & colloids at surfaces;
iii.  stability and dynamics of colloid-polymer mixtures; and
iv.  physical-chemical properties of deep eutectic solvents. 

Remco Tuinier studied food science at Wageningen University where he obtained his PhD in 1999 for research on exocellular polysaccharides and protein-polysaccharide mixtures, performed in cooperation with the NIZO food research institute. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Utrecht University, and in 2001 became a staff member at the Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany. Between 2008 and 2015 he worked at DSM ChemTech Center in Geleen (the Netherlands). Between 2010 and 2020 he combined this with a part-time position at Utrecht University at the Van 't Hoff laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry where he held the part-time chair 'Colloid-Polymer Mixtures'. With Henk N.W. Lekkerkerker he wrote the book 'Colloid and the Depletion Interaction' (Springer), which appeared in 2011. Since 2015 he is full professor of Physical Chemistry at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) at the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry.

• Debye Institute, Utrecht University
• Van ‘t Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Utrecht University
• KNCV (Royal Netherlands Chemical Society), section Macromolecules

Partners in (semi-)industry

• DSM
• Altana-Byk
• DOW