Related papers: Smectic Polymer Vesicles
We have calculated the phase diagrams of one--component fluids made of five types of biaxial particles differing in their cross sections. The orientation of the principal particle axis is fixed in space, while the second axis is allowed to…
Disordered systems like liquids, gels, glasses, or granular materials are not only ubiquitous in daily life and in industrial applications but they are also crucial for the mechanical stability of cells or the transport of chemical and…
We present a self-consistent field theory (SCFT) of semiflexible (wormlike) diblock copolymers, each consisting of a rigid and a flexible part. The segments of the polymers are otherwise identical, in particular with regard to their…
Freely suspended films of smectic liquid crystals are unique examples of quasi two-dimensional fluids. Mechanically stable and with quantized thickness of the order of only a few molecular layers, smectic films are ideal systems for…
We report on the formation of colloidal complexes resulting from the electrostatic self-assembly of polyelectrolyte-neutral block copolymers and oppositely charged surfactants. The copolymers investigated are asymmetric and characterized by…
Swimming in low-Reynolds-number fluids requires the breaking of time-reversal symmetry and centrosymmetry. Microswimmers, often with asymmetric shapes, exhibit nonreciprocal motions or exploit nonequilibrium processes to propel. The role of…
A mechanism is proposed for the growth of vesicles dispersed in a liquid solvent and a size distribution function is obtained for the vesicles, both from the first principles calculations. This distribution function is shown to be…
Understanding the transport of driven nano- and micro-particles in complex fluids is of relevance for many biological and technological applications. Here we perform hydrodynamic multiparticle collision dynamics simulations of spherical and…
We investigate regular configurations of a small number of particles settling under gravity in a viscous fluid. The particles do not touch each other and can move relative to each other. The dynamics is analyzed in the point-particle…
We construct a hydrodynamic theory of noisy, apolar active smectics, in bulk suspension or on a substrate. Our predictions include: quasi-long-ranged smectic order in dimension d = 2, and long- ranged in d = 3, extending previously…
Synthetic polymeric materials underpin fundamental technologies in the energy, electronics, consumer goods, and medical sectors, yet their development still suffers from prolonged design timelines. Although polymer informatics tools have…
Colloidal particles at complex fluid interfaces and within films assemble to form ordered structures with high degrees of symmetry via interactions that include capillarity, elasticity, and other fields like electrostatic charge. Here we…
We show that the stacking of flat aromatic molecules on a curved surface results in topological defects. We consider, as an example, spherical vesicles, self-assembled from molecules with 5- and 6-thiophene cores. We predict that the…
Liquid shells, such as lipid vesicles and soap bubbles, are ubiquitous throughout biology, engineered matter, and everyday life. Their creation and disintegration are defined by a singularity that separates a topologically distinct extended…
The habitat of microorganisms is typically complex and viscoelastic. A natural question arises: Do polymers in a suspension of active swimmers enhance chaotic motion or promote orientational order? We address this issue by performing…
Building structures with hierarchical order through the self-assembly of smaller blocks is not only a prerogative of nature, but also a strategy to design artificial materials with tailored functions. We explore in simulation the…
The interplay between geometry, topology and order can lead to geometric frustration that profoundly affects the shape and structure of a curved surface. In this commentary we show how frustration in this context can result in the faceting…
A new type of a levitating droplet clusters composed of often transforming small aggregates of water droplets is described for the first time. Unlike earlier observed droplet clusters controlled by aerodynamic forces, which formed either an…
Nanocomposite materials made of block copolymer and nanoparticles display properties which can be different from the purely polymeric matrix. The resulting material is a crossover of the original properties of the block copolymer and the…
We report the discovery of a mixed orientational structure in the quasi-one-dimensional fluid of hard non-spherical bodies with the exact calculation of the thermodynamic and structural quantities using the transfer operator method. The…