Themed collection Soft Matter Emerging Investigators Series

Advances in physical models and data science are improving predictions of polymer–solvent phase behavior and we discuss the different approaches taken today and the remaining barriers to making broadly useful predictions.

Glycogen is a biomaterial nanoparticle composed of sugar. In this perspective, the opportunities of glycogen in nanomedicine going forward is discussed.

Given the widespread adoption of display technology based on nematic liquid crystals, the discovery of new nematic phases at thermodynamic equilibrium, although extremely rare, generates much excitement.

Various models of lipid lateral diffusion which gives distinct shapes of quasielastic neutron scattering spectra: ballistic motion – Gaussian, continuous/jump diffusion – Lorentzian, and confined diffusion – combined elastic and Lorentzian.

Synthesizing reconfigurable nanoscale synthons with predictive control over shape, size, and interparticle interactions is a holy grail of bottom-up self-assembly.

Living worms form “blobs,” active entangled physical structures with emergent properties. We show how these worms provide a fascinating platform to study active polymer physics.

Water-repellent interfaces with high performance have emerged as an indispensable platform for developing advanced materials and devices.

Solvent-assisted block copolymer self-assembly is a compelling method for advancing practical applications of these materials due to the exceptional level of the control of BCP morphology and significant acceleration of ordering kinetics.

An organic/inorganic hybrid supramolecular adhesive with 3D printing capacity was prepared from low-molecular-weight monomers.

Hydrogels have a distinct trade-off between mechanical stiffness and water permeability due to the spacing of polymer strands.

Analysis of solvent structure obtained from all-atom molecular dynamics simulations reveals a descriptor that predicts the experimental deposition of polymer-wrapped carbon nanotubes.

Active particles which repel each other through torques crystallize without reducing their intrinsic speed.

In this letter, we report that RNA–polycation mixtures display a temperature-controlled dual-response phase behavior with concurrent UCST and LCST transitions.

In corrugated channels, active nematics transition from counter-rotating swirls to coherent flows. Swirling structures in the corrugations facilitate slip, lowering the critical activity needed for the transition.

Critically damped droplet force apparatus enables high-speed friction measurements on superhydrophobic surfaces without ringing artefacts. This reveals a new regime, where F_fric ∝ U^2/3, due to viscous dissipation in the air layer during lift-off.

Structural anisotropy in shear flow and its effect on the excess entropy of soft pastes.

Altering solvent-mediated effective interaction between silica nanoparticles in water through polymer grafting.

Bond kinetics and network restructuring in gels control their yield transition and thixotropic recovery.

Phoresis kernels define the local contribution of driving field or flux to the overall translational and rotational dynamics of the microswimmer.

DNA-driven assembly of colloidal crystals often requires annealing at temperatures that can damage DNA-nanoparticle bonds. Here we show that regulating assembly thermodynamics with DNA denaturants enables crystallization under ambient conditions.

Metamaterial structural adhesives with a thick asymmetric backing and thin adhesive layer offer superior advantages over traditional uniform adhesives, including enhanced adhesion due to the crack trapping mechanism and asymmetric properties.

The stabilization of complex coacervate microdroplets can be modulated by the concentrations of cPE stabilizer and salt, enabling their various applications, such as bioreactors, drug delivery vehicles, and encapsulants.

Our work investigates the dynamics of top jet drops from bubble bursting at the free surface of mixed protein–surfactant solutions, where surface viscoelasticity profoundly influences drop characterization.

Using molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate how core-softened colloids respond to extreme confinement, identifying a mono-to-bilayer transition and highlighting the emergence of the square phase.

Complex fluids including entangled wormlike micelles (WLMs) can develop heterogeneous flow regions in steady shear flow. We show that flow heterogeneity in WLMs can cause significant retraction of the fluid upon cessation of the imposed flow.

Biomimetic surfaces inspired by butterfly wings serve as a template to better understand anisotropic wetting and droplet motion.

We investigate the self-diffusion and sedimentation of suspensions of shape-anisotropic nanoparticles using a novel mesoscale model.

We investigate the effects of uniform viscosity gradients on the spontaneous oscillations of an elastic, active filament in viscous fluids.

Emulsions injected into 2D porous media flow through pores with higher local velocities without being selective about the size of the pores they encounter, leading to the trapping of a large number of them and the formation of preferential paths.

When alginate and calcium mix in a microfluidic junction, the system either flows, clogs, or demonstrates intermittency: gel repeatedly deposits, causing increased pressure, then ablates. The gel maintains its shape upon ablation to form micro-rods.

We show the potential for improvement of the folding dynamics of two-level kirigami structures by optimizing the naturally occurring hydrodynamic coupling between the levels.

By modeling run-and-tumble-turn particles that can only travel and turn along the four Cartesian axes, we show how microscopic anisotropic features extend to macroscopic scales, and are inherited, in the interacting case, by global order.

The entropy of ions governs the structure and composition of electric double layers with major implications for electrocatalytic activity.

Topological defects play diverse roles in biology. We find that tuning the passive elasticity substantially changes the intensity and extent of stresses, and in active systems can invert the defect motion and stress pattern.

Composite solutions of LAPONITE® and branched copolymer surfactants give thermoreversible sol–gel transitions due to nanostructural assembly processes.

In this work, the preparation of a pH-responsive fluorescent microgel, (NANO-PAMAM-CHT), is presented for the selective detection of Cu²⁺ and Cr₂O₇²⁻ ions.

Unambiguous knot classification is a long-standing problem. In this paper, the authors use Machine Learning to classify all knots up to 10 crossings with more than 95% accuracy and also to distinguish knots with multiple identical knot polynomials.

The rheology of complex coacervates can be elegantly tuned via the design and control of specific non-covalent hydrophobic interactions between the complexed polymer chains.

This study reports rate-dependent measurements and relaxation of stress, director rotation, and shear strain in main-chain nematic LCEs subjected to uniaxial tension with various initial directors, which is further explained by an analytical model.

We investigate changes in the diffusivity and rheology of particles tethered to a lipid bilayer as they become highly crowded.

This work proposed a novel method to calculate the wide-temperature-range cohesive properties of organic salts in both the liquid and solid states, and first calculate the charge separation distance in the single ion pair of the vapor.

Microparticles at a liquid–liquid interface are common in many material systems, from Pickering emulsions to capillary suspensions. Confocal and colloidal probe microscopy are combined to measure meniscus shape and detachment forces.

Composite hydrogels containing small amounts of paramagnetic akaganeite (β-FeOOH) nanorods in PF127 triblock copolymer show enhanced thermal stability and injectability which could find applications in tissue engineering and drug delivery.

A soft, flexible pressure sensor is developed to measure hydrostatic pressure in the ocean environment, which can be potentially integrated with many platforms including diver equipment and marine animal tags for real-time pressure monitoring.

AFM measurement reveals that two distinct mechanisms determine the crossover phenomenon in the stress relaxation of hydrogels. This contributes to a better understanding of similar mechanical behaviors of cells and tissues.

Presented is an experimental study of PVA and DMAB stabilized PLGA particles and the measurement of their T_g's with mDSC.

Utilizing a microfluidic flow-focusing chip to generate monodisperse bulk nanaobubbles. We make the surprising observation of a critical microbubble diameter above and below which the scale of bubble shrinkage dramatically changes.

Cellular membranes are responsible for absorbing the effects of external perturbants for the cell's survival.

A model system of tunable, competing short-range attraction (SA) and long-range repulsion (LR) among colloidal particles is developed which encompasses a diverse range of assembled states, including fractal clusters and a Wigner glass state.

Poly(dimethyl-co-diphenyl)siloxane has improved mechanical properties compared with polydimethylsiloxane. We used atomistic molecular dynamics simulation to investigate how the diphenyl contents slow down the relaxation dynamics of the copolymers.

Developing a model for assembly of colloids with mobile binding sites, we probe the physics of assembly of adhesion patches between particles. We find design rules for assembly of low valence chains, and also study the folding behavior of these ‘colloidomers’.

In a viscoelastic environment, characterized by Deborah number (De), active droplets get deformed and perform zig-zag motion. This unique motion is inextricably linked to the swimming mode employed by them.

The combined effect of self-propulsion and membrane adhesion of colloidal particles in a fluid vesicle is studied numerically. Novel ring-, sheet-, and branched-polymer-like particle arrangements are obtained.

Hydration and ion association data for a library of zwitterions was produced by molecular dynamics simulations. Machine learning was applied to reveal how chemical design influences target properties.

Propagation of stick-slip waves along the circumference of soft adhesive cylinders under combined torsion and compression is shown experimentally and explained by a theoretical model.

pH-responsive nanogels synthesised by reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer mediated polymerisation-induced self-assembly were used to prepare shear-thinning polymer nanoparticle-based complex coacervate hydrogels.

The transport of self-propelled particles in porous media is sensitive to boundary design; effective temperature corrections to Brownian models tend to overestimate the diffusivity of active swimmers after normalizing by their bulk self-diffusivity.

We develop a mathematical model that can predict the diffusiophoretic motion of a charged colloidal particle driven by a binary monovalent electrolyte concentration gradient in porous media.

Herein, we compare the phase separation dynamics of binary liquid–liquid crystal mixtures in droplet-based confinement to behaviour in the bulk using experiments, computer simulations and thermodynamic considerations.

We numerically explore diffusiophoretic banding of colloidal particles in two dimensions by spatio-temporally designing solute sources and sinks. We discover an optimal design set by a balance of interpole diffusion and molar rate decay timescales.

Molecular modeling of topological defect motion under temperature gradients.

Using computer simulations of a system of two unlinked rings we show and explain how the threading roles of the rings can be exchanged when their length and bending stiffness are varied.

Machine learning method has been employed to quantify the changes in water–water hydrogen bonding inside densely grafted polyelectrolyte brush layer, as compared to the water–water hydrogen bonding outside the brush layer.

Thermal expansion model is adopted to predict the folding angles of the temperature-responsive nanocomposite hydrogel/elastomer bilayer structures to study the effect ofinevitable variations in manufacturing and material properties on folding angles.

High-χ conditions from fluorophobic block polymers enable persistent micelles with core blocks consisting of just 11 mer units and having elongated conformations.

Using a cell-based computational model of a spreading cell monolayer, we show that the interplay between tissue fluidity and substrate rigidity regulates the rate of collective spreading.

Colloidal gels under moderate stress show an early precursor to yield detectable at macroscopic length scales. This precursor arises from accumulation of local plastic events.

Different clustering strategies can produce qualitatively different low-resolution representations of a protein’s conformational space. The resolution-relevance framework pinpoints those that better preserve important, biologically relevant features.

Control over lipid-membrane fusion is valuable in nanomedicine and synthetic biology. Here we provide guiding principles to program it by using fusogenic DNA nanostructures and exploring the effect of lipid composition on fusion efficiency.