Themed collection Liquid Composites

Michael Bartlett and Robert Style introduce the Soft Matter themed collection on liquid composites.

Magnetically-switchable adhesion of a two-phase composite to non-magnetic objects is achieved by magnetically addressing the material dissipative properties.

The fracturing and incorporation of liquid gallium surface oxides during shear mixing in air enables the stabilization of air bubbles within gallium which leads to the formation of a room-temperature liquid metal foam.

Mixing of liquid metal (LM) foam with low viscosity silicone oil creates stable and high thermal conductivity oil-in-LM emulsions. A thin film on the emulsion's exterior inhibits gallium induced aluminum embrittlement.

We investigate the elastic and yielding properties of two dimensional defect-free mono-crystals made of highly monodisperse droplets.

The behaviour of a soft thermofluidic system, made of a liquid metal silicone composite, undergoing large scale transient stretching is studied. With a time scale analysis, transient regimes and the limits of quasi-static assumptions are explored.

We study a general formulation in which the surface can support large deformation and carry both surface stresses and surface bending moments.

In both natural and applied contexts, investigating cell self-assembly and aggregation within controlled 3D environments leads to improved understanding of how structured cell assemblies emerge, what determines their shapes and sizes, and whether their structural features are stable.

Silicone composites featuring inclusions of liquid metal particles are soft and stretchable materials with useful electric, dielectric, mechanical, and thermal properties.

We probe colloidal organization by considering the interactions of the overlapping distortions of colloids on a curved interface.

We present a numerical and analytical analysis of elastic ripening, where droplets embedded in an elastic matrix are biased towards softer regions.

When liquid droplets grow in a polymer network, compressive stresses from the network can reverse the direction of Ostwald ripening.

When a particle is placed in a material with a lower bulk melting temperature, intermolecular forces can lead to the existence of a “premelted” liquid film of the lower melting temperature material.

A shape-morphing composite exhibits tunable actuation properties (stroke and force output) that are influenced by liquid metal particle size.

The contact between a small glass microsphere and an oil-coated soft PDMS substrate is investigated using confocal microscopy.

Micromechanics-based mean-field homogenization models estimate the thermal conductivity of liquid metal composites along the dependency on liquid inclusion concentrations and strains.

A thin, stretchable (200% linear strain), multiphase (solid–liquid) silicone composite with uniform electrical conductivity, for Joule heating and high-deformation sensing.

A strategy applicable to the synthesis of artificial magnetosomes with programmable magnetic domains is described. The magnetic domains are polarized and thus readily manipulated using magnetic fields or assembled using droplet–droplet interactions.

This work proposes a soft microfluidic demultiplexer as a potential control system for soft robotics.

Here we report a new class of bio-inspired solid–liquid adhesive, obtained by simple mechanical dispersion of PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) (solid spheres) into PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) (liquid).

Solvent transfer-induced phase separation bijels with oils of different polarity are fabricated by using a mixture of hydrophilic and hydrophobic silica nanoparticles, further expanding their potential applications in separation and catalysis.

Experiments and simulations show that arrested coalescence and capillarity-induced restructuring control the shapes of two-dimensional droplet aggregates.

Experimental parameters alone cannot predict whether a bijel will form. A machine learning tool can help classify bijel images.

Chitosan coating improves the long-term stability of sodium alginate hydrogel particles but not the viability of encapsulated probiotics.

Elastomeric polyHIPE with aqueous encapsulations.