Short introduction to the Lab

The Soft and Complex Matter Lab is currently located at NTNU's Department of Physics and Faculty of Natural Sciences.

Soft matter consists of nano- and meso-scale structures that deform under weak external influences, such as flow fields, mechanical forces, or thermal fluctuations. Our research focuses on the self-assembly of nano- and micro-scale building blocks into complex matter. We primarily conduct experimental studies on natural and sustainable composite materials, such as clays, cellulose, and plant-based systems, covering various soft matter forms (e.g., colloids, surfactants, polymers). We are particularly interested in nature-inspired materials, including geo-inspired structures and biomimetic phenomena. Our fundamental approach aims to simplify complexity without losing essential insights (as illustrated by Picasso and de Gennes, see below). At the intersection of fundamental and applied physics, we explore processes like nano- and micro-scale self-assembly and fluid flow through nanoporous media. We also study the application potential of structured nature-based materials for CO2 capture, gas separation, polymer composites, 2D materials, sustainable electronics, and food-related fluids and gels. Our work bridges soft and hard matter, using soft matter processes to fabricate functional composites. Over the past decade, we have coordinated international projects worth over 10 million euros and built strong collaborations with global research groups and industry partners. Our lab supports international researcher exchanges between academia and industry, contributing to Norway’s scientific and industrial advancements. We have filed around 80 patent applications through projects with national and international companies. With a strong interdisciplinary internationally recognized profile, our lab ranks highly in recent national evaluations (Evalnat, see below) and addresses global challenges in sustainability, health, and economic impact. Our infrastructure supports research from nanoscale to macroscale, leveraging NTNU Nanolab and international facilities to enhance our unique capabilities and collaborations.

Complexity means "reduction and removal of redundancy", as first defined by John Locke (1632-1704): "Ideas thus made up of several simple ones put together, I call complex; such as beauty, gratitude, a man, an army, the universe". This is illustrated in art by Picasso in his famous bull drawing from 1945, shown above.

A drawing called "Various animals attempting to follow a scaling law" by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (Nobel prize in physics 1991) in his book "Scaling Concepts in Polymer Physics", Cornell University Press 1979.

Motivations

We aim to understand the fundamental physical properties and processes in soft and complex matter across scales, from nano to geological. Our goal is to distinguish universal principles from system-specific behaviors. Our research addresses universal problems with practical relevance in areas such as nanotechnology, environmental science, and energy. Potential applications include CO2 capture using natural materials, soft-matter-based 2D electronics, complex photonic materials, bioengineering scaffolds, and sustainable composite cement materials.

Scientific keywords

Complex Matter, Soft matter, Nature-inspired materials, Nano-technology, Pattern formation, Anomalous diffusion, Spontaneous and guided selfassembly, Smart materials, Nano-structured materials, Nano-particles, Nano-clays, Composite materials, Photonic structures, 2D heterostructures, Microfluidics and Nanofluidics.

Key People & Teaching

Person 1

Jon Otto Fossum

Professor PhD

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Person 11

Matti Knaapila

Researcher/Adjunct Professor PhD

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Person 2

Paul Gunnar Dommersnes

Professor PhD

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Person 4

Steinar Raaen

Professor PhD

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Person 6

Barbara Pacakova

Researcher PhD

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We teach the following courses:

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- Functional Materials

- Statistical Physics

- Nonlinear Dynamics

- Soft Technologies

- Soft Matter Physics

- Instrumentation

- Light, Neutron, and X-ray scattering

We coordinate one EU Horizon 2020 MSCA International PhD Training Network

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Pickfood - Pickering emulsions for food applications

Recent happenings

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Recent 2025 lectures presented from the Soft and Complex Matter Lab (continously updated):
Prof. Barbara Pacakova presented a lecture at IEEE 15th International Conference on “Nanomaterials: Applications & Properties” (IEEE NAP-2025), September 7–12, 2025, in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Prof. Jon Otto Fossum presented invited lectures at 13th Brazilian Materials Research Society Meeting (XXIII B-MRS Meeting) in Salvador Bahia, Brazil, Sept 28 - Oct. 2, 2025, and at   Centro Regional de Ciências Nucleares do Nordeste - CRCN-NE in Recife, Brazil, Oct. 6, 2025.

The 11th Annual International Workshop on Soft and Complex Matter took place in the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo, Sept. 25-26, 2025.

The 18th International Clay Conference (ICC) took place in Dublin, Ireland, July 13-18, 2025. Barbara Pacakova from the Soft and Complex Matter Lab gave one of the keynote lectures at the Conference (see picture), and Prof. J.O. Fossum presented one lecture, and, together with international collaborators, organized three very successful sessions at the Conference. The tree sessions were: Materials via ordered interstratifications", Greenhouse Gas Remediation, and Nanoelectronic and Nanophotonic Applications.

On July 7, 2025, the Soft and Complex Matter Lab organized a very successful closing event (see group photo) for our Pickfood European Training Network, taking place in Rennes, France as a satellite to the Edible Soft Matter conference 2025.

Our recent article in npj 2D Materials and Applications Naturally occurring 2D semiconductor with antiferromagnetic ground state, Barbara Pacakova, Bera Lahtinen-Dahl, Alexsandro Kirch, Hanna Demchenko, Veslemoy Osmundsen, Chloe A. Fuller, Dmitry Chernyshov, Dominika Zakutna, Caetano R. Miranda, Steinar Raaen & Jon Otto Fossum, npj 2D Mater Appl 9, 38 (2025), made it to the news.
See article in Norwegian SciTech News, - Published 15.05.2025. See also Interesting engineering, EurekAlert!, AlphaGalileo, Technology Networks .

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The Soft and Complex Matter Lab together with Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), organized The Geilo School 2025: Complex Matter and AI: Connectivity, Information and Adaption, March 10-20, 2025 at Bardøla Høyfjellshotel, Geilo, Norway.

The 10th Annual International Workshop on Soft and Complex Matter was held in the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Sept. 27-28, 2024.

Lectures presented from the Soft and Complex Matter Lab during 2024 (continously updated):
Prof. Paul Dommersnes presented a lecture at Department of Mathematics at the University of Oslo, Norway, December 6, 2024
Prof. Jon Otto Fossum presented lectures at 2nd International Sirius Workshop on Heterogeneous and Hierarchical Materials (H2Mat) at the Sirius synchrotron in Campinas, Brazil, November 8, 2024, at   JMC2024 in Marseille, France, October 29, 2024, at   University of Twente in Enschede, Netherlands, September 21, 2024, at   University of Bayreuth in Germany, September 11, 2024, at   ECIS2024 in Copenhagen, Denmark, September 3, 2024, at   ILCC2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 2024, at   ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, UK, on July 22nd 2024, and at   ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​PMMH-ESPCI-Paris, France, on February 16th 2024.
On May 28th 2024 (picture above), PhD candidate Namrah Azmi from our lab presented a lecture at ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Northern Lights on Food organized by ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​LINXS Institute of advanced Neutron and X-ray Science in Lund, Sweden.
On January 17th (picture above), 2024, Prof. Jon Otto Fossum gave an invited lecture at the Max IV Lab User Meeting 2024 in Lund, Sweden.
See also: Follow-up interview with Prof. Fossum, about quick clays, avalanches and potential effects of climate change.

Professor Paul Dommersnes, from the Soft and Complex Matter Lab published an article in Science Advances.

The article entitled Topology-guided polar ordering of collective cell migration, Emma Lång, Anna Lång, Pernille Blicher, Torbjørn Rognes, Paul Gunnar Dommersnes, Stig Ove Bøe, Science Advances, Vol 10, Issue 16 (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk4825) is a result of a collaboration between Prof. Dommersnes and researchers located at Oslo University Hospital in Norway.

The Soft and Complex Matter Lab did remarkably well in the recent evaluation of Norwegian Natural Sciences (EVALNAT), which was organized by the the Research Council of Norway.

All research groups working in natural sciences in Norway were evaluated. and received reports that are expected to be followed up by their respective institutions, in our case NTNU.

On December 5, 2023, Professor Jon Otto Fossum gave an invited lecture at Harvard University, on the topic Clay minerals as 2D natural nanomaterials for sustainable applications . The very good discussions with, and feedback from, students, researchers and staff at Harvard, and others, are very much appreciated. This marked the end of a very active year on the international lecturing front by Prof. Fossum, with talks on related topics: Invited Friday Physics Colloquium, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, November 17, 2023; Invited Chemsitry Seminar, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - UFPE, Recife, Brazil, November 13, 2023; ILLUM – escola de ciência, Campinas, Brazil, November 1, 2023; UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil, October 26, 2023; CENIMAT,Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal, October 17, 2023; NTNU NanoLecture, Trondheim, Norway, September 12, 2023; Graphene Week, Gothenburg, Sweden, September 4-8, 2023; Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology ( NM-AIST), Arusha, Tanzania, July 20, 2023; DINAMO 2023 in Svolvær, Lofoten Islands, Norway, June 11 – 16, 2023; SICT/PLASMA TECH/TRIBOLOGY 2023 JOINT CONFERENCES - Lisbon, Portugal, 26-28 April, 2023

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On October 26-27, 2023, we organized a very successful Workshop on Mesostructures and Microfluidics , taking place at University of Campinas - UNICAMP , Campinas - SP, Brazil. The picture shows the organizers, invited lecturers and some of the poster presenters.

The 9th Annual International Workshop on Soft and Complex Matter was held in the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Sept. 15-16, 2023.

September 12, 2023, Jon Otto Fossum, and Barbara Pacakova were invited to give joint lectures in the Nanolecture Series at NTNU Jon Otto's lecture given in sunglasses for the occasion: Intro to Soft and Complex Matter Lab, NTNU: Natural nanomaterials for sustainable applications. Barbara's lecture: Polluting dyes, nanoparticles and clay minerals targeting sustainable batteries and nanoelectronics. About 30 participants from the NTNU Nano community attended the event.

This year, the Materials Research Society (MRS) celebrates its 50th anniversary! Throughout the year, the editors of MRS Bulletin will highlight unique articles that reflect MRS milestones.
Our Impact article

Large bandgap insulating superior clay nanosheets

Barbara Pacakova, Per Erik Vullum, Alexsandro Kirch, Josef Breu, Caetano Rodrigues Miranda & Jon Otto Fossum
MRS Bulletin 47, December 2022. DOI: 10.1557/s43577-022-00349-8 has been brought forward as an MRS milestone. In this article we demonstrate simple self-assembly of heterostructures such as graphene-clay-graphene, which could form the next generation of nanodevices.

The Geilo School 2023: The Physics of Evolving Matter: Connectivity, Communication and Growth, March 13-23, 2023 at Bardøla Høyfjellshotel, Geilo, Norway.

The Soft and Complex Matter Lab organized the very successful Soft Matter Days 2023, at NTNU in Trondheim, January 17-20, 2023.

The Soft and Complex Matter Lab organized a very successful 19th Nordic Workshop on Scattering from Soft Matter (NSSM-2023), at NTNU in Trondheim, January 17-18, 2023.

In 2022 NTNU DISCOVERY awareded 5.75 million NOK to the smartest inventors at NTNU. Our Soft and Complex Matter Lab project "Claycolor" received 1 million NOK.

Our recent article in Science Advances made it to the news.
See article in Norwegian SciTech News, - Published Feb 3, 2022 (Foto: Shutterstock). See also physicsworld: optics and photonics - Published Feb 20, 2022, EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo - Published Feb 3, 2022.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 went to three individuals who found that the world isn’t always as chaotic as we think. See article about Complexity Science in Norwegian SciTech News, - Published Dec 9, 2021 (Foto: Bournemouth News Pic Service/REX, Shutterstock, NTB).

The TRAIL project “Monitoring lifetime of thermoplastic composites by combining analytics and machine learning” is financed by the Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI).
Project title "Monitoring lifetime of thermoplastic composites by combining analytics and machine learning". Project coordinator is Rechearcher M. Knaapila NTNU.
The project started in January 2022 and will end in January 2025. One PhD student is assigned to our research group: Alexander Harold Sexton started in January, 2022.
Project partners include selected company partners from the Dutch Polymer Institute and the University of Oslo.

December 2021 marked the official startup of a new project granted from the European Commission. Project title: "Pickfood - Pickering emulsions for food applications". Project coordinator is Rechearcher M. Knaapila NTNU.
The project, which is granted until end of 2025, is a Horizon 2020 MSCA ETN project. It includes 15 PhD candidates employed worldwide, and 5 of these will receive their PhD from NTNU.
Network directly or indirectly funded by the project:
Norway (NTNU, IFE, Giamag Technologies); - Sweden (Univ. Uppsala, Chalmers Univ.); - Denmark (Univ. Copenhagen, Technical Univ. Denmark (DTU), Danish Veterinary and Food Administration); - Finland (Aalto Univ.); - Netherlands (Univ. Amsterdam, Univ. Wageningen, Unilever-Wageningen, Bether Encapsulates BV); - Switzerland (ETH-Zurich); - Spain (Bioinicia, IATA); - France (National Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research (INRAE), Inst. Curie Paris); - UK (Univ. Birmingham); - USA (North Carolina State Univ., Penn State Univ.); - Brazil (Unicamp Campinas, Noviga).

August 2021 marked the official startup of a new project granted from the Research Council of Norway. Project title: "Clay nanolayers for encapsulations of drops and nanopartivles". Project leader is Prof. J.O. Fossum NTNU.
The project is granted until mid 2026; it employs 1 PhD candidate (Yue Yu started August 2021, on contract until mid-2025) and 1 postdoctoral researcher.
Project partners are located at: Univ. Bayreuth Germany, ESPCI-ParisTech France, Chalmers Univ. Sweden, ISIS-UK, Univ. de Sao Paulo (USP) Brazil.
This new project connected to and added activites to two other projects granted by the Research Council of Norway, with the same project leader, including some of the same and some other international partners.

The KAPPA Program project “Nano-remediation of contaminated soils: Technology implementation with respect to ecotoxicological aspects” is financed by a Czech-Norway collaboration (Norway Grants). Project leader at NTNU is Prof. S. Raaen.
The main project started in January 2021 and ended in April 2024. One researcher position is assigned to our research group. Dr. Xiaofeng Yu started in September 2021.
Project partners include Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague; Charles University, Prague; NTNU, Trondheim; and Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA), Oslo. Project coordinator is Professor Michael Komárek at Czech University of Life Sciences.

Some highlight examples from our publications

We have found that naturally occurring clay vermiculite mined from certain sources can have promising properties for use in quantum technology, and as usual for clays, this is interesting because it is cheap, non-toxic, sustainable and available in large quantities. Vermiculite can thus be a natural 2D material that is semiconducting and antiferromagnetic at the same time– three properties that are wanted because they can be very useful for future quantum-based technologies. Although the clay is found in nature, it requires advanced laboratory methods to be used technologically, and it does not yet work at room temperature. This project is the result of a close collaboration between our Soft and Complex Matter Lab at NTNU (including 4 young women researchers/students) and partners in Brazil (University of Sao Paulo), France (ESRF Grenoble) and the Czech Republic (Charles University), and show what young researchers can achieve with good support and the right environment. see npj 2D Mater Appl 9, 38 (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41699-025-00561-5)

The Material Research Society (MRS) highlighted one of our papers as one of their most important milestones during the past fifty years. Our Impact paper was chosen alongside the works of Kavli prize winner Mildred Dresselhaus and the Nobel laureate Richard E. Smalley. Our paper brings into the focus 2D layers of synthetic clay, showing that it is so far the best 2D insulator in the world, with an electronic band gap larger than that of the famous and widely used hexagonal boron-nitride. Thus using this clay material opens up for large scale fabrication of small electronic components and will find use integrated with the other 2D materials to create novel electronic devices such as ultra-thin transistors, sensors, flexible electronics or quantum gates, that are the essential components of quantum computers. see MRS Bulletin 47, December 2022. DOI: 10.1557/s43577-022-00349-8 (2022)

Clay swelling (by intercalation), and clay nanolayer delamination, occurs when external molecules, such as H2O, enter the interlayer space within a clay particle. Inreased humidity, immersion in liquid water or increased temperature facilitate the swelling and delamination, thus producing nematic phases. Such nematic jamming effects on the nanoscale can on the macroscale "counterintuitively" lead to increased mechanical strength and increased viscosity. when the temperature is increased in such a system. Sketch taken from: Scientific Reports 2, 618 (2012); See also Soft Matter, 9, 99994 (2013), Applied Clay Science 198, 105831 (2020) and Langmuir 37, 160 (2021) and other publications from our lab.

Figure 2 description.

A silicone oil drop with an electrohydrodynamically induced ribbon of particles. Further, the applied DC E-field can polarize certain particles forming dipolar chains confined to a drop interface. We have also studied the electrohydrodynnamics of droplet coalsecence for production of Janus capsules. Experimental image taken from: Nature Communications 4, 2066 (2013). See also Nature Communications 5, 3945 (2014) and other publications from our lab.