Related papers: Capillary micromechanics: Measuring the elasticity…
The interaction between a rapidly oscillating atomic force microscope tip and a soft material surface is described using both elastic and viscous forces with a moving surface model. We derive the simplest form of this model, motivating it…
Evaporating droplets of polymer or colloid solution may produce a glassy crust at the liquid-vapour interface, which subsequently deforms as an elastic shell. For sessile droplets, the known radial outward flow of solvent is expected to…
Super-cooled liquids are characterized by their fragility: the slowing down of the dynamics under cooling is more sudden and the jump of specific heat at the glass transition is generally larger in fragile liquids than in strong ones.…
Coherent x-ray micro-diffraction and local mechanical loading can be combined to investigate the mechanical deformation in crystalline nanostructures. Here we present measurements of plastic deformation in a copper crystal of sub-micron…
Simple analytical relations for predicting pressure-deformation relations of drops/bubbles on capillaries with elastocapillary interfaces confirmed by Surface Evolver simulations.
The ordering of particles in the drying process of a colloidal suspension is crucial in determining the properties of the resulting film. For example, microscopic inhomogeneities can lead to the formation of cracks and defects that can…
Measurements with an atomic force microscope (AFM) offer a direct way to probe elastic properties of lipid bilayer membranes locally: provided the underlying stress-strain relation is known, material parameters such as surface tension or…
Using molecular dynamics simulations, we show that a simple model of a glassy material exhibits the shear localization phenomenon observed in many complex fluids. At low shear rates, the system separates into a fluidized shear-band and an…
Acoustics provides a powerful modality with which to 'see' the mechanical properties of a wide range of elastic materials. It is particularly adept at probing soft materials where excellent contrast and propagation distance can be achieved.…
Soft particles such as microgels and core-shell particles can undergo significant and anisotropic deformations when adsorbed to a liquid interface. This, in turn, leads to a complex phase behavior upon compression. Here we develop a…
An increasing number of research topics and applications ask for a precise measurement of the size distribution of small bubbles in a liquid - and hence for reliable and automated image analysis. However, due to the strong mismatch between…
Soft material research has seen significant growth in recent years, with emerging applications in robotics, electronics, and healthcare diagnostics where understanding material mechanical response is crucial for precision design.…
The role of porous structure and glass density in response to compressive deformation of amorphous materials is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. The disordered, porous structures were prepared by quenching a high-temperature…
Entangled matter provides intriguing perspectives in terms of deformation mechanisms, mechanical properties, assembly and disassembly. However, collective entanglement mechanisms are complex, occur over multiple length scales, and they are…
Assemblies of purely repulsive and frictionless particles, such as emulsions or hard spheres, display very curious properties near their jamming transition, which occurs at the random close packing for mono-disperse spheres. Although such…
Using atomic force microscopy on silica and float glass surfaces, we give evidence that the roughness of melted glass surfaces can be quantitatively accounted for by frozen capillary waves. In this framework the height spatial correlations…
The mechanical properties of collagen fibrils depend on the amount and the distribution of water molecules within the fibrils. Here, we use atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the effect of hydration on the viscoelastic properties of…
We measure the flow of water through mixed packings of glass spheres and soft swellable hydrogel grains, at constant sample volume. Permeability values are obtained at constant sample volume and at porosities smaller than random close…
We study here the microscopic deformations of elastic lamellae constituting a superhydrophobic substrate under different wetting conditions of a sessile droplet using electrowetting. The deformation profiles of the lamellae are…
Understanding the relationship between micromechanics and macroscopic plastic deformation is vital for elucidating the deformation mechanism of amorphous solids, such as granular materials. In this study, we directly measure T1 events,…