Related papers: Microscale adhesion patterns for the precise local…
We present a model for the joint self-assembly of amphiphilic polymers and small amphiphilic molecules (surfactants) in a dilute aqueous solution. The polymer is assumed to consist of a hydrophilic backbone and a large number of hydrophobic…
Understanding interactions between microparticles and lipid membranes is of increasing importance, especially for unraveling the influence of microplastics on our health and environment. Here, we study how a short-ranged adhesive force…
In biomimetic and biological systems, interactions between surfaces are often mediated by adhesive molecules, nanoparticles, or colloids dispersed in the surrounding solution. We present here a general, statistical-mechanical model for two…
Cell-cell adhesion is one the most fundamental mechanisms regulating collective cell migration during tissue development, homeostasis and repair, allowing cell populations to self-organize and eventually form and maintain complex tissue…
Cell-cell adhesion plays a vital role in the development and maintenance of multicellular organisms. One of its functions is regulation of cell migration, such as occurs, e.g. during embryogenesis or in cancer. In this work, we develop a…
Colloidal molecules are designed to mimic their molecular analogues through their anisotropic shape and interactions. However, current experimental realizations are missing the structural flexibility present in real molecules thereby…
The deposition of oil drops on solid substrates from mixed solutions of surfactants and cationic polymer is investigated. The used anionic surfactants are sodium laurylethersulfate (SLES) and sulfonated methyl esters (SME); the zwitterionic…
Aminosilanes are routinely employed for charge reversal or to create coupling layers on oxide surfaces. We present a chemical vapor deposition method to pattern mica surfaces with regions of high-quality aminosilane…
Self-assembled monolayers of microparticles encoding Archimedean and non-regular tessellations promise unprecedented structure-property relationships for a wide spectrum of applications in fields ranging from optoelectronics to surface…
The sticking of a soft polystyrene colloidal particle to a planar glass plate was studied by a microrheological technique using an optical tweezer to trap the particle and a piezoelectric-stage to position the plate and to sinusoidally…
The study of the interactions of living adherent cells with mechanically stable (visco)elastic materials enables understanding and exploiting physiological phenomena mediated by cell-extracellular communication. However, insight on the…
The orientation of the lamellae formed by the phase separation of symmetric diblock copolymer thin films is strongly affected by the wetting properties of the polymer blocks with respect to the substrate. On bare silicon wafers the lamellae…
The optimal shapes attained by contractile cells on adhesive substrates are determined by the interplay between intracellular forces and adhesion with the extracellular matrix. We model the cell as a contractile film bounded by an elastic…
Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assays (ELISA) are a range of widely used analytical methods whose implementation requires to build antibodies (IgG) thin films onto surfaces predominantly made of polystyrene. The high hydrophobicity of…
On perfectly vertical surfaces, rolling is conventionally deemed impossible without external torque. While various species like geckos and spiders exhibit vertical locomotion, they cannot achieve rolling; instead, they fall. In this study,…
Adhesion requires molecular contact, and natural adhesives employ mechanical gradients to achieve complete (conformal) contact to maximize adhesion. Intuitively, one expects that the higher the modulus of the top layer, the lower will be…
Slippery covalently attached liquid surfaces (SCALS) are a family of nanothin polymer layers with remarkably low static droplet friction, characterised by a low contact angle hysteresis (CAH$< 5 \deg$), which makes them ideally suited to…
Area-selective atomic layer deposition is a key technology for modern microelectronics as it eliminates alignment errors inherent to conventional approaches by enabling material deposition only in specific areas. Typically, the selectivity…
A self-consistent model is developed to investigate attachment / detachment kinetics of two soft, deformable microspheres with irregular surface and coated with flexible binding ligands. The model highlights how the microscale binding…
Suspensions of micro and nano particles made of Polystyrene, Poly(methyl methacrylate), Silicon dioxide etc. have been a standard model system to understand colloidal physics. . These systems have proved useful insights into phenomena such…