The PHASE (Particle, Hydrometallurgy and Surface Engineering) group was established after merging Ugelstad Laboratory and Particle Engineering Center in 2026. The core competences in the group include particle engineering, colloidal science, emulsions and multiphase flow, materials and fluid characterization, computer vision and computational modelling.

We use this expertise to improve the understanding of molecules, assembly of molecules, nanoparticles, interfacial phenomena and crystallization within the following research areas:

• Energy, environment and sustainability
• Health and biomedicine
• Hydrometallurgy and recycling

In this way, we aim to improve the quality, efficiency and sustainability of industrial processes and products.

The group collaborates closely with Norwegian and international industry, research institutes and academic groups across the world through externally and internally funded projects and centres. We invest in new instrumentation, develop novel experimental methodologies and maintain high HSE standards in our laboratory facilities. With this foundation, we offer a unique and ambitious research environment for students and young scientists, and we educate highly qualified Master and PhD candidates for industrial and academic positions.

Mission

The PHASE group advances knowledge in complex materials across scales, from nanoparticles and emulsions to functional systems, to address global challenges in the environment, health, and energy, while fostering collaboration and training the next generation of researchers, engineers, and scientists.

We use our expertise within particle engineering, colloidal science, emulsions and multiphase flow, materials and fluid characterization, computer vision and computational modelling to drive progress in three main research areas:

Energy, environment and sustainability

We aim to understand and control the interfacial properties of drops, bubbles and particles. We then link these microscale properties to the visible behavior of multiphase systems such as emulsions, foams and suspensions. For example, we investigate the replacement of animal-sourced proteins with plant-sourced proteins as emulsion stabilizers, and we contribute to the improved sustainability of emulsion-based food and beverages. Through gas flotation and separation studies, we improve liquid-liquid and solid-liquid separation to enhance industrial and municipal water treatment and make mineral processing more efficient. The overall goal is to translate our research results from the lab to the industry towards more sustainable processes and products with reduced environmental impact.

General topics of interest include:

• Food emulsions
• Gas flotation
• Phase separation
• Process intensification
• Wastewater treatment

Health and biomedicine

Nanomaterials and their exceptional properties stemming from the nanoscale have attracted great attention among the scientific community as well as in the industry sector for the past few decades. Applications of such fascinating materials within nanomedicine ranging from diagnostics to therapeutics, require systematic mapping of structure-property relationships to their synthesis. Further, an in-depth understanding of the formation mechanisms of such nanomaterials is essential to manipulate the reaction conditions impacting the resultant properties.

With an aim to fabricate nanomaterials for applications within biosensing, diagnostics, drug delivery and bioimaging, we focus on synthesis, characterization, and functionalization of nanomaterials for fundamental understanding of growth mechanisms through experiments and molecular modelling. Materials wise, we focus on polymers, lipids, metals as well as their synergistic combinations, while process wise, we focus on batch and continuous at different scales.

General topics of interest include:

• Nanoformulation
• Controlled release
• Diagnostics and Therapeutics
• Biosensing and Bioimaging
• Fortified foods
• Cryobiology

Hydrometallurgy and recycling

Circular economy is crucial for sustainable development and to supply critical raw materials to Norway and Europe, and hydrometallurgical processing has the lowest environmental impact and flexibility for different streams and materials production. We aim to develop cutting-edge and adapt well-stablish hydrometallurgy technologies for the production of critical materials from industrial waste, mining tailings, and urban solid waste. For example, we investigate and propose recycling processes of Li-ion and Na-ion batteries, and we contribute to the development of wastewater and production of valuable chemicals. Through hydrometallurgy and electrohydrometallurgy, we increase the production of critical metals from wastes and promote circular economy towards net-zero industrialization. Technology translation into real environment is important for industrial implementation.

General topics of interest include:

• E-waste recycling
• Sustainable Mining
• Electrochemical separation
• Industrial crystallization
• Effluent treatment
• Waste valorization

The PHASE group is running state-of-the art laboratories for interfacial and colloidal characterization of dispersed systems such as emulsions, suspensions, nanoparticles and foam. More information on the specific instruments used for the various types of analysis and characterization can be found on BookItLab.

Microfluidics

Microfluidics deals with observation and control of fluids in small channels. It is a technique with a wide range of applications, such as performing reactions on a microscale, probing emulsion stability, measuring interfacial properties or following flow in porous media. 

At PHASE, we utilize microfluidics to study different kinds of phenomena such as flow properties and stability of droplets and bubbles, oil displacement from network-based chips, online spectroscopic analysis of fluids and retention of droplets in porous media (two videos or gifs here). To do this, we use microfluidic platforms. These multi-instrument devices are typically composed of a microscope and a high-speed (up to 500k frames per second) or high-resolution camera for observation; and pumps, valves, sensors, spectrophotometers and other auxiliary equipment for controlling the flow, composition, temperature, pressure, and the state of fluids injected into the microfluidic chips.

Tensiometry and adsorption techniques

Dynamic and equilibrium interfacial tension measurements describes adsorption onto interfaces and can be performed by various methods. The choice of method often depends on the sample and the timescale which is of interest. At PHASE we have four different ways of measuring interfacial tension.

• Ring tensiometer allows to perform measurements of surface (air-liquid) or interfacial tension (liquid-liquid). It relies on measuring the force required to pull the surface/interface to a maximum point. Two titrators that enable automatic measurements of the critical micelle concentration can also be attached to avoid a number of time-consuming measurements.
• Spinning drop tensiometer relies on image analysis of a drop of a lighter fluid injected in a revolving capillary, filled with a heavier fluid. The drop will be elongated with increasing speed of revolution as the centrifugal force will increasingly oppose the drive of the interfacial tension towards a minimum interfacial area. The technique is useful for measuring low and ultralow interfacial tensions.
• Pendant drop tensiometer is particularly suitable for time-dependent measurements of adsorption of surfactants at liquid/air or liquid/liquid interfaces. Images of a drop created from a capillary are continuously recorded and resolved for interfacial tension. The rheological properties (elasticity and viscosity) of the interface can also be determined by subjecting the drop to periodic oscillation of the volume. The setup can also be used to measure contact angles on a flat substrate.
• Maximum bubble pressure tensiometer allows to access values of surface tension on a millisecond scale. Bubbles generated from a capillary are immersed into a solution and the maximum pressure during the bubble formation is detected and used to calculate the surface tension. With this information, surface characteristics and diffusion kinetics can be calculated.

Quartz Crystal Microbalance enables direct studies of adsorption at solid surfaces. The measurements are based on changes in vibration frequency of a quartz crystal sensor in response to adsorption on the sensor surface. The technique can be used to follow molecular events in real-time, measure mass and thickness of molecular layers and analyze mechanical properties of adsorbed layers.

Particle and dispersion characterization

Dispersion characterization and stability plays a central part in many of the activities in our research group. Therefore, the laboratory is equipped with a number of instruments that allow to study dispersed systems in various ways. Several of our instruments rely on light scattering phenomena, i.e. reflection of light from the surface of dispersed particles and its subsequent detection. This can provide different kind of information, such as turbidity (transmission of light through the sample) and particle size (obtained from the angle of scattered light or diffusion of colloids). Furthermore, many of these methods allow for resolving changes of the properties over time, which gives access to information about the sedimentation or creaming, as well as coalescence, flocculation, and drop/bubble breakage.

To perform particle size measurements, we have a wide range of options in addition to light scattering, and one of our instruments uses the sedimentation or creaming rate during centrifugation to estimate the particle size. It can also be used to characterize magnetism of magnetic particles such as iron oxide nanoparticles. Another instrument uses the principle of Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA), a technique in which the light scattered by particles during laser exposure is tracked by a camera. Fiber-Based Reflectance Measurements (FBRM) is another technique that can be used for this purpose but is more suited to particles in the micron range and does, in contrast to most other techniques, not assume spherical particles. Instead, our instrument measures the length from end-to-end on any site of the particle, thereby generally giving a wider distribution than other techniques.

While most aqueous samples can be probed with the above-mentioned techniques, characterization of opaque samples is a tougher challenge. Still, both size distributions and the stability of these kinds of dispersions can be probed with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopes, available at our facilities.

Other type of characterization techniques available at the lab include measurements of electrophoretic mobility (zeta potential), rheometry, magnetic characterization and microscopic analysis.

Spectroscopical and optical techniques

For spectroscopic characterization of liquids and powders, multiple instruments are available.

• Microwave Plasma - Atomic Emission Spectrometer is a technique which can find the concentration of most atoms in a sample by measuring the light emission from atoms which occurs when exposed to high energy such as the plasma in our instrument. The instrument is similar to ICP-OES but is generally cheaper in use as it only requires intake of air and minor amounts of Argon.
• UV-vis spectroscopy (190 - 1100 nm)
• Near-Infrared spectroscopy (12800 – 4000 cm-1)
• Raman spectroscopy (325, 633 and 785 nm, 10, 15 and 50x objectives, fiber optic head for liquids)
• Probe-based Raman spectrometer (785 nm excitation wavelength, 100-2300 cm-1 Raman shift range) available for single or continuous measurements of samples.

Chromatographic methods

• High performance liquid chromatography: For chromatographic analysis of liquid samples there is an HPLC with an analytical C18 column for quantification of organic molecules such as drugs and a size exclusion column (SEC) for analysis of unknown samples based on molecular size.
• Ion chromatograph set up for anion quantification, equipped with a chemical suppressor and a conductivity detector. The instrument uses KOH as the eluent, and the concentration can be set in the software. This makes it possible to run concentration gradients of KOH during an analysis.
• GC-GC-MS (two columns) for chromatographic separation and simultaneous analysis by FID and MS is available.

Thermal analysis

• Differential Scanning Calorimeter: The instrument measures heat flows associated with thermal transitions in a material as a function of temperature. Properties that can be determined include glass transitions, melting, crystallization, asphaltene precipitation kinetics, and paraffin wax analysis.
• Isothermal Calorimeter is a thermodynamic technique that directly measures the heat released or absorbed during a molecular binding event. It is used to determine thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy and equilibrium constants and to study interactions and self-association of molecules.

Miscellaneous

Many other basic techniques are available, such as:

• Karl Fisher Coulometer for determination of small amounts of water in emulsions
• Vibratory Disc Mill and Planetary Ball Mill for sample milling
• automatic Sieve Shaker for separating fractions of powder samples
• automatic Titrator for basic titration experiments
• Microwave digestor for sample preparation
• Flotation Machine for solid material separation
• Qubit Fluorometer for quantification of DNA, RNA and proteins
• Density/Concentration Meter for measuring the density of solutions
• Titrando titration device to determine the total concentration of acids (TAN) or bases (TBN) present in a sample by titration
• pH Meter for measuring pH in solutions
• Rotavapor to separate liquids by applying vacuum and heat
• Conductivity Meter to measure electrical conductivity in solutions
• 3D-printer for rapid prototyping.

Spring semester

• Surface- and Colloid Chemistry (TKP4115)
• Polymer Chemistry (TKP4130)
• Fabrication and Application of Nanomaterials (TKP4190)
• Hydrometallurgical Process Technology (TKP4158)

PhD courses

• Doing Science: Methods, Ethics and Dissemination (MN8000)
• Surface- and Colloid Chemistry (KP8905)

Autumn semester

• Chemical Engineering (KP3200)
• Colloid and Polymer Chemistry, Specialization Course (TKP4525)
• Transport Phenomena (TKP4160)