Related papers: Mediating gel formation from structurally controll…
We explore the impact of three water-soluble polyelectrolytes (PEs) on the flow of concentrated suspensions of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) microgels with thermoresponsive anionic charge density. By progressively adding the PEs to a…
Polarized attosecond $\gamma-$rays may offer excitation and hyperfine tracking of reactions relevant to nuclear physics, astrophysics, high-energy physics, etc. However, unfortunately, generation of a feasible and easy-to-deploy source is…
Nanobubbles in liquids are mysterious gaseous objects having exceptional stability. They promise a wide range of applications but their production is not well controlled and localized. Alternating polarity electrolysis of water is a tool…
Direct near field electrospinning is used to produce very long helical polystyrene microfibers in water. The pitch length of helices can be controlled by changing the applied voltage, allowing to produce both micro springs and…
Low-molecular weight (LMW) hydrogels are gaining interest over macromolecular gels due to their reversible, dynamic and stimuli-responsive nature. They are potentially interesting functional materials for advanced applications such as…
Colloidal gels are out-of-equilibrium structures, made up of a rarefied network of colloidal particles. Comparing experiments to numerical simulations, with hydrodynamic interactions switched off, we demonstrate the crucial role of the…
Understanding and controlling self-assembly processes at multiple length scales is vital if we are to design and create advanced materials. In particular, our ability to organise matter on the nanoscale has advanced considerably, but still…
An innovative method is proposed to generate configurations of coarse grained models for polymer melts. This method, largely inspired by chemical ``radical polymerization'', is divided in three stages: (i) nucleation of radicals (reacting…
PNIPAm microgels synthesized via free radical polymerization (FRP) are often considered as neutral colloids in aqueous media, although it is well known, since the pioneering work of Pelton and coworkers [Langmuir 1989, 5, 816-818], that the…
Physically assembled gels have promising applications in many fields because of their tunable mechanical properties. Here, we report the mechanical properties as a function of polymer volume fraction ($\phi$) for a physical gel system…
The ability to induce regions of high and low ionic concentration adjacent to a permeselective membrane or nanochannel subject to an externally applied electric field (a phenomenon termed concentration-polarization) has been used for a…
Low-density "equilibrium" gels that consist of a percolated, kinetically arrested network of colloidal particles and are resilient to aging can be fabricated by restricting the number of effective bonds that form between the colloids.…
We study the effects of charge-regulated acid/base equilibrium on the swelling of polyelectrolyte gels, by considering a combination of the Poisson-Boltzmann theory and a two-site charge-regulation model based on the Langmuir adsorption…
Letting free polymers diffuse from solution into a crosslinked polymer gel is often a crucial processing step in the synthesis of multiphase polymer-based gels, e.g., core-shell microgels. Here we use coarse-grained molecular dynamics…
Anisotropic homogeneous metamaterials that are neither wholly dissipative nor wholly active at a specific frequency are permitted by classical electromagnetic theory. Well-established homogenization formalisms indicate that such a…
When a rigid object approaches a soft material in a viscous fluid, hydrodynamic stresses arise in the lubricated contact region and deform the soft material. The elastic deformation modifies in turn the flow, hence generating a…
Ice formation is one of the most common and important processes on earth and almost always occurs at the surface of a material. A basic understanding of how the physicochemical properties of a material's surface affect its ability to form…
Ionic electro-active polymers (E.A.P.) can be used as sensors or actuators. For this purpose, a thin film of polyelectrolyte is saturated with a solvent and sandwiched between two platinum electrodes. The solvent causes a complete…
The liquid-liquid phase separation of a binary solvent can be arrested by colloidal particles trapped at the interface [K. Stratford et al., Science 309, 5744 (2005)]. We show experimentally that the colloidal network so formed can remain…
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…