I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Physics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. My research focuses on developing and implementing computational tools to study soft-matter systems, including block copolymer self-assembly, DNA and polymer dynamics in porous media or under constraints, active matter and non-equilibrium processes, electrophoretic separation techniques, and micro- and nanofluidic devices.
🔬 Research
📝 Publications
Block Copolymer self-assembly
Stability and Elasticity of Ultrathin Sphere-Patterned Block Copolymer Films
Le Qiao, Daniel A. Vega, Friederike Schmid.(2024). " Macromolecules. 57(9) 4629-4634.
- We use self-consistent field theory (SCFT) to investigate the elastic response of sphere monolayer films with respect to in-plane shear, in-plane extension, compression deformations, and bending. We demonstrate that the bending constants are found to be negative, indicating that free-standing block copolymer membranes made of only a sphere monolayer are inherently unstable above the glass transition.
Nanopore Translocation
Ratcheting Charged Polymers through Symmetric Nanopores Using Pulsed Fields: Designing a Low Pass Filter for Concentrating Polyelectrolytes
Le Qiao, Kai Szuttor, Christian Holm, Gary W Slater.(2024); Nano Letters. 23(4) 1343-1349.
- We present a new concept for the separation of DNA molecules by contour length that combines a nanofluidic ratchet, nanopore translocation, and pulsed fields. Using Langevin dynamics simulations, we show that it is possible to design pulsed field sequences to ratchet captured semiflexible molecules in such a way that only short chains successfully translocate, effectively transforming the nanopore process into a low pass molecular filter.
Full Pubilication List
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Le Qiao, Daniel A. Vega, Friederike Schmid, Stability and Elasticity of Ultrathin Sphere-Patterned Block Copolymer Films, Macromolecules, 57 (9), 4629-4634 (2024).
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Le Qiao, Marios Giannakou, Friederike Schmid, An Efficient and Accurate SCF Algorithm for Block Copolymer Films and Brushes Using Adaptive Discretizations, Polymers, 16, 1228 (2024).
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Le Qiao, Kai Szuttor, Christian Holm, Gary W. Slater, Ratcheting Charged Polymers Through Symmetric Nanopores Using Pulsed Fields: Designing a Low Pass Filter for Concentrating DNA, Nano Lett, 23, 1343-1349 (2023).
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Le Qiao, Nicholas Ilow, Maxime Ignacio, Gary W. Slater, An Empirical Method to Characterize Displacement Distribution Functions for Anomalous and Transient Diffusion, Physica A, 604, 127676 (2022).
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Le Qiao, Gary W. Slater, Capture and Translocation of a Rod-Like Molecule by a Nanopore: Orientation, Charge Distribution and Hydrodynamics, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 24, 6444-6452 (2022).
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Le Qiao, Maxime Ignacio, Gary W. Slater, An Efficient Kinetic Monte Carlo to Study Analyte Capture by a Nanopore: Transients, Boundary Conditions and Time-Dependent Fields, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 23, 1489-1499 (2021).
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Le Qiao, Gary W. Slater, Capture of Rod-Like Molecules by a Nanopore: Defining an “Orientational Capture Radius”, J. Chem. Phys., 152, 144902 (2020).
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Le Qiao, Maxime Ignacio, Gary W. Slater, Voltage-Driven Translocation: Defining a Capture Radius, J. Chem. Phys., 151, 244902 (2019).
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📖 Educations
- 2016.09 - 2021.06, PhD, Physics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
- 2015.01 - 2016.08, MPhil, Biological Physics, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
- 2010.09 - 2020.06, BSc, Material Physics, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, China.
💬 Selected Talks
- 2024, Stability and Elasticity of Ultrathin Sphere-Patterned Block Copolymer Films, DPG spring meeting, Berlin, Germany
- 2023, Size and topology-based separation of charged polymers using nanopore translocation with AC fields, Ring Polymer Dynamics Workshop, Prato, Italy
- 2022, Ratcheting charged polymers through symmetric nanopores using pulsed fields: Designing a low pass filter for concentrating DNA, DPG Spring Meeting, Regensburg, Germany
- 2021, Capture of semi-flexible polyelectrolytes by a nanopore: a Lattice Boltzmann Simulation Study, APS March meeting, Online
- 2020, Capture and translocation of a rod-like dsDNA by a nanopore: a Lattice Boltzmann simula- tion study, APS March meeting, Online
- 2019, Capture and translocation of a stiff oligomer by a nanopore, APS March meeting, 2019, Boston, MA, US