Themed collection Soft Matter Open Access Spotlight

Gel polymer electrolytes can exhibit enhanced ionic conductivity and interfacial stability by achieving an optimal balance between surface adhesion and bulk mechanical properties.

Condensate droplets arise from phase separation into two liquid phases α (white) and β (green). Vesicle membranes exposed to such droplets are divided up into two membrane segments (red and purple), which can form membrane nanotubes.

In this perspective, we discuss the fundamental mechanisms and the length scales responsible for the formation of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPLs), MNPL size, shape, and morphologies, their metrology, and open questions in the field.

Bacterial biofilms that grow under confinement can mechanically interact with their environment to generate various global geometries and forms of cellular patterning.

Microcontact printing (μCP) is a versatile and low-cost technique for surface patterning, allowing for the fabrication of intricate designs with relative ease.

The co-assembly of nanometer- and submicrometer-sized colloidal particles can result in multi-component superstructures with unique properties.

We review the recent theoretical and simulation studies on interactions between curvature-inducing proteins and membranes.

This review clarifies the structure–process–property relationship in PVA-based polarizers.

Nanoprecipitation is a versatile, low-energy technique for synthesizing nanomaterials through phase separation, enabling precise tuning of nanomaterial properties.

Ion-conducting polymers (ICPs) are gaining interest in various scientific and technological fields. This review highlights advancements in ICP thin films using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and addresses challenges of traditional methods.

This review explores network designs that address the trade-off between toughness and elasticity, offering strategies to develop materials with both high fracture resistance and low hysteresis for advanced applications.

This review is about drops of a liquid with high dielectric permittivity that slide over a solid surface with high electrical resistivity.

A tutorial review on mesoscale computer simulations of fluid lipid membranes presenting three tutorials with repositories of ready-to-run codes for tether pulling, membrane tubulation and membrane fluctuation analysis.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been introduced through detailed tutorials, accompanied by a code package, as a powerful technique suitable for versatile investigations in fluid mechanics and soft matter physics.

Direct visualization reveals that electrostatic interactions govern the compression and ordering of highly charged microgels at the air/water interface, leading to enhanced structural order and elasticity under basic conditions.

The spreading of a drop in a wedge shows anomalous diffusion scaling, with the diffusion exponent directly linked to the fluid's rheological properties.

In models of Pickering emulsion stabilisation, it is assumed that Young’s equation defines the angle of a solid particle at the oil/water interface. Here, we consider the implications for stability when the particle is displaced by an external force.

A method to extract gel-forming mucins from pig trachea is developed. These airway mucins form viscous gels resembling human airway mucus, making them a useful model for lung disease research.

Connecting active and passive monomers to form partially active polymers can lead to directed transport towards regions of high or low chemical concentration.

Cellulose-producing bacteria grown pairwise on solid substrates form exquisite spatial patterns during biofilm spreading. We offer design principles to control and tune cellulose biofilm structure for potential biofabrication and food applications.

BTS incorporation into F127 micelles prevents BTS aggregation, resulting in an emissive hydrogel that is robust to pH changes.

Experiments and simulations show how cyclic shearing affects the structure and dynamics of colloidal gels.

A dynamic light scattering study of director fluctuations in the antiferroelectric (AF) phase of the ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal DIO is reported.

This study theoretically investigates how anisotropic curved membrane components (CMCs) control vesicle morphology through curvature sensing, nematic alignment, topological defects and volume constraints.

Relative comparison of the findings obtained applying scaling analysis via dimensionless numbers for the different motion modes of the RPM and the two different approaches to determine relative droplet velocity.

Protonation, and thereby approximation to a catanionic surfactant mixture leads to smaller vesicles via the line tension, neutrons reveal.

Using extensive numerical simulations, we develop a model to explain energy dissipation under ballistic impact based on geometrical factors.

Multiscale experiments and simulations reveal that loading causes irreversible molecular damage in fibrin fibers.

Incorporating dynamically evolving, density-dependent charging effects significantly prolongs the lifetimes of out-of-equilibrium colloidal crystals.

Single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs) form via intramolecular folding and cross-linking of polymers. We examine how dimensionless design parameters dictate SCNP morphology, highlighting the influence of shear flow.

We investigate the generation of square-lattice defect arrays in ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals under the influence of an alternating field. The parameters of the structure depend on the frequency of the applied field and could be tuned.

Crosslinking DLP 3D printable elastomers using scissile mechanophores increases tear resistance, and enables suturing of the material.

Ubiquicidin peptide united with ortho-borylated acetophenone could be a potential agent to combat antibiotic resistance bacteria.

By combining machine learning with molecular simulations, we accurately predict the crosslinker concentration, their spatial distribution and the swelling behavior of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgels from the polymer density profiles.

Snags are unwanted defects in textiles where fibers are pulled out of place. Here, we intentionally introduce snags to woven sheets to create curvatures.

A model bacterial membrane is degraded by exposure to Cu(OH)₂ nanorods in oxidative medium. Neutron reflectometry revealed the exact mass distribution, and provided an accurate methodology to study the effect of metal nanoparticles on biomembranes.

The interplay of capillary attraction and Marangoni-driven repulsion between two surfer beads results in a spatial oscillator. In clusters of these beads the coupling leads to partially and fully synchronized states depending on their size.

Transition from steady unidirectional motion to oscillatory motion revealed for a Marangoni swimmer interacting with passive particle raft under 1D confinement and a cargo transport potential observed in the steady regime.

An investigation of 2D and 3D structural order in colloidal thin films vertically dried from dispersions with a systematically varying polydispersity; our results support a model of epitaxial-like growth of 2D layers to form 3D colloidal crystals.

Development of a living organism is a highly regulated process during which biological materials undergo constant change.

Using PFG NMR, liquid-core nanocapsules with fluorinated reporters enable the non-invasive, background-free measurement of hydrogel mesh size in its native, hydrated state.

The crystallisation of a metastable liquid is an everyday phenomenon, yet it still presents a number of puzzles: the experimental nucleation rates of hard spheres diverge by 22 orders of magnitude from those derived from theory/simulation—why?

Forcing hydrophilic fluids through hydrophobic porous solids is a recurrent industrial challenge.

Structure of a bangle tethered on a kink of a dislocation loop resolved by fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy.

A novel SANS workflow predicts optimal data acquisition time using short scans and knowledge-based uncertainty estimates, enabling faster and more efficient parameter estimation and model differentiation.

Rewetting induces fragment re-adhesion and new delamination patterns, revealing reversible interfacial healing in silica nanoparticle coatings.

Elongated polymeric micelles diffuse faster in networks, providing opportunities for shape-optimised drug delivery carriers.

A new, simple and robust strategy for stabilizing water-in-water emulsions with coatings formed by a lamellar phase.

The cruciform sample geometry is redesigned to enable the measurement of uniaxial and equibiaxial failure stresses of a silicone elastomer that agree with the stresses observed in control measurements.

Integrating SAXS, MD, and continuum modeling enables precise quantification of water content in hexagonal phases, revealing a correlation between hydration and transfection efficiency across ionizable lipids.

Pulmonary surfactant is essential for reducing the surface stress at the alveolar liquid–air interface, but the mechanisms are still not fully understood, specially regarding the role of multilayers and their influence on interfacial properties.

‘Mexican hat’ structure in drying polymer solution drops.

Colloidal gelation involves formation of an interconnected and percolated network of particles, followed by its coarsening and maturation. We present quantitative analysis of this network through different structural and dynamical measures.

Separation of passive particles in the mixture by the effects of confinement and activity.

We create inflatable particles that can stiffen or soften during inflation utilizing strain localization.

The neutral stability curve gives the critical potential vs. wavenumber, with the straight line marking the transition wavenumber. Left of the intersection shows supercritical saturation, while the right side indicates subcritical rupture.

This article demonstrates how to convert commercial thermoset silicone kits to UV-set materials following a convenient, easily accessible protocol.

We determine the correlation length and hydrodynamic screening length of an amphiphilic PEG–PCL co-network and analyze their dependence on network composition to establish scaling laws for the targeted design of diffusion-based APCN applications.

Charged hydrogel adhesion and repulsion strongly depends on the surface charge and ionic environment. Oppositely charged surfaces deform the gels locally, while similarly charged surfaces lead to a hydration layer.

Protein condensate adsorption and spreading on actin filaments is investigated using fluorescence microscopy. We show condensates form capillary bridges that bundle filaments and induce network remodeling.

Precursor chemistry, concentration and chirality control polycatecholamine (pCA) polymerization. Analysis of dopamine, levodopa and norepinephrine reveals distinct kinetic and particle aggregation profiles for the rational design of pCA surfaces.

Networks of colloidal patchy particles exhibit a rich dynamical response when activated by self-propelled particles with moderate activity.

We present an apparatus that probes the macroscopic mechanical response and the microscopic motion in soft solids under uni-axial strain. In PDMS networks in the linear regime, non-affine dynamics dominate on length scales smaller than a few microns.

Microfluidic experiments show droplets coalescence criteria with viscosity ratio and surfactant concentration, and non-monotonic film drainage time is observed.

Power law rheology of HL60 cells renders mechanical measurements largely independent of experimental method, timescale and adhesion or suspension state. Specifically, the resting Young's modulus is not affected by buffer composition and viscosity.

The interaction between topological defects in 2D p-atics with periodic boundary conditions is different than Coulomb charges in the same configuration. This is due to topological solitons that are stabilized by the nontrivial domain topology.

Extensile active flows drive sorting to an anchored boundary in an active nematic–passive isotropic fluid mixture.

We experimentally quantify the key error sources in optical tweezer measurements and systematically model their impact on the extraction of interaction potentials.

We study noise spectra in sliding friction and show how wear particles and interfacial dynamics control power-law exponents in displacement fluctuations.

We present a theoretical model of polyelectrolyte-grafted colloidal actuators, which can expand and contract in response to pH variations.