Furst, a self-described “space nut,” has designed a series of experiments that will be conducted by a team of five astronauts on the International Space Station throughout the summer of 2021. The research, which could potentially lead to the development of never-before-seen materials for use in next-generation electronics, involves colloids. These tiny pieces of matter are suspended in liquid and about a micrometer in size — think one one-hundredth the width of a human hair. 

“One of the fascinating things is, when you’re that small, particles have the ability to self-assemble,” Furst said. “They’re like little Legos — if Legos clicked together on their own. We’re interested in asking what we can build with these building blocks.”

Colloid experimentation on Earth has led to advancements in many of the commercial purchases you make every day. Paint, milk and ink are all colloid products. And your toothpaste is able to flow out of its tube — but not through the bristles of your toothbrush — because of colloid research. But Earth-bound investigations can only go so far, due to a pesky little reality: gravity.

“The particles are heavy, so they are very influenced by it,” Furst said. “The Space Station experiments allow us to take that part of the physics out of the equation and say: ‘What does the general phenomenon of self-assembly look like when we don’t have this gravity thing?’.”

This is Furst’s fourth intergalactic endeavor and, for this iteration, he is looking specifically at the way heat and light move through the colloid samples in space. While the possible applications of this research are largely for his colleagues in industry to determine, he said, the science could potentially improve the way we engineer display screens on our electronic devices, or it could improve the function of coatings used in actuators (aka, machine components responsible for movement).

For five years, in his lab on campus, Furst and his students synthesized new colloid particles and created original shapes for existing colloid particles — in other words, they reinvented the microscopic Lego. Then, in capillary tubes about three inches long, these samples took off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center onboard SpaceX’s 22nd Commercial Resupply Mission, or CRS. Upon arrival, there was one hiccup: The astronauts lost one of the parts to the experiment while unloading it into their Microgravity Glovebox, an enclosed, designated space for conducting investigations such as this. But, thanks to a wanted flyer posted inside the Space Station — standard protocol when something goes missing in orbit, Furst said — the rogue piece was located.