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Self-assembly of polymers at liquid interfaces using non-covalent interactions has emerged as a promising technique to reversibly produce self-healing membranes. Besides the assembly process, it is also crucial to control the mechanical…
Cells offer numerous inspiring examples where proteins and membranes combine to form complex structures that are key to intracellular compartmentalization, cargo transport, and specialization of cell morphology. Despite this wealth of…
The interaction of amino acids (glycine, L-valine, L-isoleucine and L-leucine) with alumina surface was studied to induce partial hydrophobization and production of ultrastable particle-stabilised foams. The evaluation of these amino acids…
Superhydrophobcity is a well-known wetting phenomenon found in numerous plants and insects. It is achieved by the combination of the surfaces chemical properties and its surface roughness. Inspired by nature, numerous synthetic…
The layers of graphene oxide (GO) are found to be good for permeation of water but not for helium (Science 2012 335 (6067): 442-444) suggesting that the GO layers are dynamic in the formation of permeation route depending on the environment…
Microgels are elastic and deformable particles with a hybrid nature between that of polymers and colloids and unconventional behaviours with respect to hard colloids. We investigated the dynamics of a soft microgel made of interpenetrated…
A hallmark of meso-scale interfacial fluids is the multi-faceted, scale-dependent interfacial energy, which often manifests different characteristics across the molecular and continuum scale. The multi-scale nature imposes a challenge to…
Electroactive polymers (EAP) are smart materials that can be used as actuators, sensors or energy harvesters in many fields. We had previously studied an ionic metal-polymer composites (IPMC), which consists in an ionic polymer film such as…
Poly(ethylene oxide)-$\textit{b}$-poly(butylmethacrylate) (PEO-$\textit{b}$-PBMA) copolymers have recently been identified as excellent building blocks for the synthesis of hierarchical nanoporous materials. Nevertheless, while experiments…
It is demonstrated that polymers sticking out of the surface of a neutral hydrogel are capable of preventing adhesive forces from pulling a hydrogel into close contact with a surface against which it is pressed. The proposed mechanism for…
Liquids in contact with solids are submitted to intermolecular forces making liquids heterogeneous and stress tensors are not any more spherical as in homogeneous bulks. The aim of this article is to show that a square-gradient functional…
Membranes derived from ultrathin polymeric films are promising to meet fast separations, but currently available approaches to produce polymer films with greatly reduced thicknesses on porous supports still faces challenges. Here,…
Structural colors generated due to light scattering from static all-dielectric metasurfaces have successfully enabled high-resolution, high-saturation and wide-gamut color printing applications. Despite recent advances, most demonstrations…
Here, we report on a new class active particles capable of dynamically programmable motion powered by electricity. We have implemented physical principles that separate the propulsion and steering mechanisms of active motion using optically…
Long-range anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions between ultracold polar molecules are predicted to drive exotic quantum phases, yet direct many-body signatures of these interactions in degenerate Fermi gases have remained elusive. Here,…
Phosphorene has emerged as an atomically-thin platform for optoelectronics and nanophotonics due to its excellent nonlinear optical properties and the possibility of actively tuning light-matter interactions through electrical doping. While…
Nonlinear optical processes rely on the intrinsically weak interactions between photons enabled by their coupling with matter. Unfortunately, many applications in nonlinear optics are severely hindered by the small response of conventional…
Nanostructured dielectric metasurfaces offer unprecedented opportunities to manipulate light by imprinting an arbitrary phase-gradient on an impinging wavefront. This has resulted in the realization of a range of flat analogs to classical…
The properties of polymeric nanofibers can be tailored and enhanced by properly managing the structure of the polymeric molecules at the nanoscale. Although electrospun polymer fibers are increasingly exploited in many technological…
Photomechanical liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are responsive polymers that can convert light directly into mechanical deformation. This unique feature makes these materials an attractive candidate for soft actuators capable of remote and…