Chemobrionics is the study of how structure emerges from atomic scale disorder. More specifically, chemobrionics explores the question of how macroscopic order emerges from molecular scale disorder.

One well-known example of this phenomenon is the chemical garden reaction. In this reaction a soluble seed crystal is placed inside a sodium silicate solution. As the seed dissolves, the metal cations react with the silicate to form a highly insoluble salt membrane. Water is pulled osmotically through this membrane, building up a pressure that eventually bursts the membrane, ejecting dissolved metal cations starting the cycle again.

My research group is studying the reverse chemical garden reaction where dissolved salt solution is injected in to sodium silicate solution from the top. Depending upon the injection conditions the macroscopic precipitation structure varies widely. We are using machine learning to characterize this reaction.