Related papers: Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of Dense…
Additive manufacturing (AM) of metallic components promises many advantages over conventional manufacturing processes through high design flexibility across multiple length scales and precision coupled with an astonishing combination of…
Machine Learning (ML) techniques are revolutionizing the way to perform efficient materials modeling. Nevertheless, not all the ML approaches allow for the understanding of microscopic mechanisms at play in different phenomena. To address…
Plastic deformation of heterogeneous solid structures is often characterized by random intermittent local plastic events. On the mesoscale this feature can be represented by a spatially fluctuating local yield threshold. Here we study the…
We examine the structure of compact metal nanoparticles (NPs) forming polyhedral sections of face centered (fcc) and body centered (bcc) cubic lattices, which are confined by facets characterized by highly dense {100}, {110}, and {111}…
The mechanical properties of crystalline materials can be substantially modified under confinement. Such modified macroscopic properties are usually governed by the altered microstructures and internal stress fields. Here, we use a parallel…
We study a dense colloidal suspension confined between two quasiparallel glass plates as a model system for a supercooled liquid in confined geometries. We directly observe the three-dimensional Brownian motion of the colloidal particles…
When an amorphous solid is deformed homogeneously, the response exhibits heterogeneous plastic instabilities with localized cooperative rearrangement of cluster of particles. The heterogeneous behavior plays an important role in deciding…
Folded protein hydrogels are prime candidates as tuneable biomaterials but it is unclear to what extent their mechanical properties have mesoscopic, as opposed to molecular origins. To address this, we probe hydrogels of the muscle-derived…
Building a general theoretical framework to describe the microscopic origin of macroscopic chirality in (colloidal) liquid crystals is a long-standing challenge. Here, we combine classical density functional theory with Monte Carlo…
Soft-granular media, such as dense emulsions, foams or tissues, exhibit either fluid- or solid-like properties depending on the applied external stresses. Whereas bulk rheology of such materials has been thoroughly investigated, the…
Molecular diffusion measurements are widely used to probe microstructure in materials and living organisms noninvasively. The precise relation of diffusion metrics to microstructure remains a major challenge: In complex samples, it is often…
Colloidal gels assembled from nanoparticles (NPs) are a versatile class of soft network-based materials capable of rich dynamic, mechanical, and even optical or magnetic responses to stimuli. Understanding how their hierarchically organized…
The self-assembly of particles into organized structures is a key feature of living organisms and a major engineering challenge. While it may proceed through the binding of perfectly matched, puzzle-pieces-like particles, many other…
Diverse processes -- e.g., environmental pollution, groundwater remediation, oil recovery, filtration, and drug delivery -- involve the transport of colloidal particles in porous media. Using confocal microscopy, we directly visualize this…
Processes of mixing and segregation in a packed bed of granular material stirred by a periodically moving rectangular bar are simulated by the discrete element method (DEM). Influence of mechanical properties of the particle material…
Repeated loading of a solid leads to microstructural damage that ultimately results in catastrophic material failure. While posing a major threat to the stability of virtually all materials, the microscopic origins of fatigue, especially…
Three-dimensional discrete numerical simulation is used to investigate the properties of close-packed frictionless granular assemblies as a function of particle polydispersity and shape. Unlike some experimental results, simulations show…
The physical mechanism of elasticity of liquid surfaces coated with colloidal particles is proposed. It is suggested that particles are separated by water clearings and the capillary interaction between them is negligible. The case is…
We present a simple method for accessing the elastic properties of microscopic deformable particles. This method is based on measuring the pressure-induced deformation of soft particles as they are forced through a tapered glass…
Many emerging applications in microscale engineering rely on the fabrication of three-dimensional architectures in inorganic materials. Small-scale additive manufacturing (AM) aspires to provide flexible and facile access to these…