Professor Corti's research focuses on understanding the thermophysical and kinetic properties of a variety of soft condensed-phase systems, including liquids and colloidal dispersions. Theoretical and simulation techniques are utilized to generate important insights into how the interparticle forces influence the behavior of such systems over a broad range of time and length scales.

Many products in the multi-billion-dollar paint, ink and pharmaceutical industries contain microscopic particles suspended in a water-based mixture. These particles should not agglomerate or stick together, as well as not settle down or sediment, over long periods of time. Typically, a dispersant is added to the mixture, which prevents or slows down the agglomeration and settling of the particles. A critical need exists to develop further the fundamental science of how the properties of suspended particles and dispersants affect the stability of suspensions against sedimentation and agglomeration. Our research focuses on the novel use of vesicles and liposomes, and the physicochemical mechanisms, for controlling the stability of various suspensions. A combination of experimental, theoretical and computational methods is used to generate novel insights into colloidal suspension and vesicle/liposome dispersion behavior.

Particle adhesion plays a key role in various applications, such as the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. While adhesion is caused by several forces, the van der Waal (vdW) attractive force is a particularly important interaction as it arises in all systems. The strength of the vdW force is quantified through the use of the Hamaker constant, and accurately estimating its value is of significant interest. The atomic force microscope (AFM), with its use of a flexible cantilever, has been widely used to study the vdW forces arising within various systems. We are developing novel methods for generating improved estimates of the Hamaker constant with low uncertainty from AFM experiments that are applicable to a broad range of materials. Our approaches also explicitly account for the surface roughness of the materials, which is crucial for inferring the distinct material-dependent value of the Hamaker constant.

The coalescence of drops and bubbles is ubiquitous in daily life, and is important in many processes encountered in the consumer products, pharmaceutical, agricultural and petroleum industries. Coalescence has been studied extensively employing continuum-based theory and simulation, as well as via experiments. Since coalescence is initiated at length and time scales at which the discrete nature of matter is important, these prior studies could not provide information about the molecular-level mechanistic details of the beginning stages of coalescence. Our research focuses on developing novel molecular simulation methods for exploring the details of drop and bubble coalescence at molecular length and time scales. Recent work has provided key insights into identifying when prior continuum predictions are still valid and when certain stages of coalescence are instead driven by molecular-level processes.

This research area considers the application of various methods from equilibrium statistical mechanics or molecular thermodynamics to the study of gaseous and liquid systems of interest. We are investigating the thermodynamics of small systems, and how the thermodynamics of macroscopic, extensive systems needs to be modified when the system is not extensive or not in the thermodynamic limit. In addition, we are working on the development of various molecular simulation algorithms, ensuring their consistency with molecular thermodynamics. In particular, we have developed both Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics algorithms that yield ensemble averages that are consistent with the proper formulation of various constant pressure ensembles.

D. S. Corti, D. Ohadi, R. Fariello, and M. J. Uline, 2023, “Microcanonical Thermodynamics of Small Ideal Gas Systems,” Journal of Physical Chemistry B 127, 3431-3442.

M C. Stevenson, S. P. Beaudoin, and D. S. Corti, 2023, “Toward an Improved Method for Determining the Hamaker Constant of Solid Materials Using Atomic Force Microscopy. III. Experimental Validation of a New Approach-to-Contact Method,” Journal of Physical Chemistry C 127, 9371-9379.

A.-H. Hsieh, E. I. Franses, and D. S. Corti, 2023, “Effect of a double-chain surfactant on the stabilization of silica and titania particles against agglomeration and sedimentation,” Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 662, 130993.

J. M. Vazquez, W. Oliver, S. P. Beaudoin and D. S. Corti, 2024, “The Effects of Short-Range Intermolecular Repulsive Forces on Hamaker Constant Estimation Using Atomic Force Microscopy,” Langmuir 40, 24808-24819.

H. W. Hatch, V. K. Shen, and D. S. Corti, 2024, “Theory and Monte Carlo simulation of the ideal gas with shell particles in the canonical, isothermal-isobaric, grand canonical, and Gibbs ensembles,” Journal of Chemical Physics 161, 084106.

J. M. Vazquez, L. Ellis, S. P. Beaudoin and D. S. Corti, 2025, “The Effects of Sample Tilt on Atomic Force Microscopy Deflections,” Langmuir 41, 20041-20052.

A. U. Joshi, O. A. Basaran and D. S. Corti, 2025, “Molecular simulation of the initial stages of drop coalescence,” Physical Review E 111, 065106.

H. W. Hatch, D. S. Corti, D. A. Kofke, and V. K. Shen, 2025, “Best Practices for Developing Monte Carlo Methodologies in Molecular Simulations,” Living Journal of Computational Molecular Science 6, 3289.

D. S. Corti and M. J. Uline, 2025, “Chemical damping of the motion of a piston: irreversibilities arising from nonequilibrium conditions on the chemical potential,” European Journal of Physics 46, 025101.