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The intricate interplay between colloidal particle shape and precisely engineered interaction potentials has paved the way for the discovery of unprecedented crystal structures in both two and three dimensions. Here, we make use of…
With the increasing demand for personalized health monitoring, wearable sensors have gained attention in medical diagnostics and physiological tracking. Hydrogels, known for their mechanical properties and similarity to biological tissues,…
Classical microcontact printing involves transfer of molecules adsorbed on the outer surfaces of solid stamps to substrates to be patterned. We prepared spongy mesoporous silica stamps that can be soaked with ink and that were…
Understanding the complex self-assembly of biomacromolecules is a major outstanding question. Microtubules are one example of a biopolymer that possesses characteristics quite distinct from standard synthetic polymers that are derived from…
Contacts between particles in dense, sheared suspensions are believed to underpin much of their rheology. Roughness and adhesion are known to constrain the relative motion of particles, and thus globally affect the shear response, but an…
Using self-assembly techniques, x-ray reflectivity measurements, and computer simulations, we study the effective interaction between charged polymer rods and surfaces. Long-time Brownian dynamics simulations are used to measure the…
Thermoresponsive polymer architectures have become integral building blocks of 'smart' functional materials in modern applications. For a large range of developments, e.g., for drug delivery or nanocatalytic carrier systems, the selective…
Optically active achiral metasurfaces offer a promising way to detect chiral molecules based on chiroptic methods. The combination of plasmonic enhanced circular dichroism and reversible optical activity would boost the sensitivity and…
Dense suspensions of colloidal or granular particles can display pronounced non-Newtonian behaviour, such as discontinuous shear thickening (DST) and shear jamming (SJ). The essential contribution of particle surface roughness and adhesive…
Particle surface chemistry and internal softness are two fundamental parameters in governing the mechanical properties of dense colloidal suspensions, dictating structure and flow, therefore of interest from materials fabrication to…
Elastomeric pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) form adhesive bonds under light pressure. Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are exciting PSA candidates as they can impart both anisotropy and temperature-dependence to adhesion, but the full…
Superresolution microscopy has become a powerful tool to investigate the internal structure of complex colloidal and polymeric systems, such as microgels, at the nanometer scale. The ability to monitor microgels response to temperature…
Recent experimental utilization of liquid substrate in the production of two-dimensional crystals, such as graphene, together with a general interest in amorphous materials, raises the following question: is it beneficial to use a liquid…
We propose a theoretical investigation of the physical adsorption of neutral comb-polymers with an adsorbing skeleton and non-adsorbing side-chains on a flat surface. Such polymers are particularly interesting as "dynamic coating" matrices…
Components of technical systems and devices often require self-lubricating properties, which are implemented by means of dry lubricants. However, continuous lubricant coatings on the components' surfaces often suffer from poor adhesion,…
The plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a large single cell visible with the naked eye. When inoculated on a substrate with attractants and repellents the plasmodium develops optimal networks of protoplasmic tubes which span sites of…
We study the adsorption of semiflexible polymers such as polyelectrolytes or DNA on planar and curved substrates, e.g., spheres or washboard substrates via short-range potentials using extensive Monte-Carlo simulations, scaling arguments,…
Multivalent particles bind to targets via many independent ligand-receptor bonding interactions. This microscopic design spans length scales in both synthetic and biological systems. Classic examples include interactions between cells,…
We present experiments where anisometric colloidal microparticles dispersed in a nematic liquid crystal cell with homeotropic anchoring conditions are dynamically assembled by means of liquid-crystal-enabled electrophoresis (LCEEP) using an…
Non-cubic crystals exhibit anisotropic physical and functional properties. Microscopic crystallites as constituents of polycrystalline materials are randomly oriented, thus polycrystalline ceramics lack the anisotropic properties of their…