Related papers: Polyelectrolyte intelligent gels. Design and appli…
We review recent advances in the design, synthesis, and modeling of active fluids. Active fluids have been at the center of many technological innovations and theoretical advances over the past two decades. Research on this new class of…
Gellan gum has gained significant attention due to its versatility in multiple applications in the form of hydrogels and microgels. A thorough understanding of the rheological behaviour of these systems is crucial both for fundamental…
Vision-based tactile sensors (VBTSs) are a promising technology for robots, providing them with dense signals that can be translated into a multi-faceted understanding of contact. However, existing VBTS tactile surfaces make use of silicone…
We investigate end-effects in the ion distribution around strongly charged, flexible polyelectrolytes with a quenched charge distribution by molecular dynamics simulations of dilute polyelectrolyte solutions. We take the counterions…
Solid interfaces have intrinsic elasticity. However, in most experiments, this is obscured by bulk stresses. Through microscopic observations of the contact-line geometry of a partially wetting droplet on an anisotropically stretched…
Inorganic nanocrystal gels retain distinct properties of individual nanocrystals while offering tunable, network structure-dependent characteristics. We review different mechanisms for assembling gels from colloidal nanocrystals including…
Dielectric elastomers are an emerging class of highly deformable electro-active materials employed for electromechanical transduction technology. For practical applications, the design of such transducers requires a model accounting for…
This article discusses recent attempts to provide a deeper understanding of the thermoreversible "gel" state of colloidal matter and to unravel the analogies between gels at the colloidal level and gels at the molecular level, commonly…
Polymer electrolytes are intensely investigated for use as solid electrolytes in next generation lithium-ion and lithium-metal batteries. However, little is known about the structural and dynamical properties of polymer electrolytes close…
Using molecular dynamics simulations, we reveal emergent properties of hydrated electrode interfaces that while molecular in origin are integral to the behavior of the system across long times scales and large length scales. Specifically,…
We investigate theoretically the phase diagram of an insoluble charged surfactant monolayer in contact with a semi-dilute polyelectrolyte solution (of opposite charge). The polyelectrolytes are assumed to have long-range and attractive…
Filler-induced strengthening is ubiquitous in materials science and is particularly well-established in polymeric nanocomposites. Despite having similar constituents, colloidal gels with solid filling exhibit distinct rheology, which is of…
Inspired by the path followed by Matthias Ballauff over the past 20 years, the development of thermosensitive core-shell microgel structures is reviewed. Different chemical approaches, from hard nanoparticle cores to double…
Porous gels -- gels with solvent-filled pores that are much larger than their mesh size -- are widely used in engineering and biomedical applications due to their tunable mechanics, high water content, and selective permeability. Among…
The electrophoretic behaviour of flexible polyelectrolyte chains ranging from single monomers up to long fragments of hundred repeat units is studied by a mesoscopic simulation approach. Abstracting from the atomistic details of the…
Recent progress in approaches to determine the elastic constants of solids starting from the microscopic particle interactions is reviewed. On the theoretical side, density functional theory approaches are discussed and compared to more…
Polymer electrolytes are critical for safe, high-energy-density solid-state batteries, yet discovering candidates that balance high ionic conductivity with high transference numbers remains a significant challenge. In this work, we develop…
Temperature dependence of the capacitance of the electrical double layer (EDL) in concentrated electrolytes/ionic liquids has been under debates for decades. To rationalise the capacitance vs temperature dependence, we run molecular…
We analyze solutions of strongly charged chains bridged by linkers such as multivalent ions. The gelation induced by the strong short range electrostatic attractions is dramatically suppressed by the long range electrostatic correlations…
Glasses and gels, widely encountered amorphous solids with diverse industrial and everyday applications, share intriguing similarities such as rigidity without crystalline order and dynamic slowing down during aging. However, the underlying…