Related papers: Mediating gel formation from structurally controll…
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…
We investigate the collective behavior of suspended thermoresponsive microgels, that expel solvent and subsequently decrease in size upon heating. Using a binary mixture of differently thermoresponsive microgels, we demonstrate how…
We report on the formation of colloidal complexes resulting from the electrostatic self-assembly of polyelectrolyte-neutral block copolymers and oppositely charged surfactants. The copolymers investigated are asymmetric and characterized by…
We study the self-assembly of colloidal microgel particles at a quasi-two-dimensional air-water interface of a drying droplet. Using bright-field microscopy, we demonstrate that increasing particle elasticity drives interfacial organization…
We investigate the linear viscoelasticity of polymer gels produced by the dispersion of gluten proteins in water:ethanol binary mixtures with various ethanol contents, from pure water to 60% v/v ethanol. We show that the complex…
Conducting polymer dendrite (CPD) morphogenesis is an electrochemical process that unlocks the potential to implement in materio evolving intelligence in electrical systems: As an electronic device experiences transient voltages in an…
The dynamics of a physical gel, namely the Low Molecular Mass Organic Gelator {\textit Methyl-4,6-O-benzylidene-$\alpha$ -D-mannopyranoside ($\alpha$-manno)} in water and toluene are probed by neutron scattering. Using high gelator…
Vertical heterostructures combining different layered materials offer novel opportunities for applications and fundamental studies of collective behavior driven by inter-layer Coulomb coupling. Here we report heterostructures comprising a…
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…
Gels made of telechelic polymers connected by reversible crosslinkers are a versatile design platform for biocompatible viscoelastic materials. Their linear response to a step strain displays a fast, near-exponential relaxation when using…
While largely studied on the macroscopic scale, the dynamics leading to nucleation and fission processes in atmospheric aerosols are still poorly understood at the molecular level. Here, we present a joint experimental-theoretical study of…
Colloidal glasses form from hard spheres, nearly hard spheres, ellipsoids and platelets or their attractive variants have been studied in detail. Complementing and checking theoretical approaches and simulations, the many different types of…
We report a computer simulation study of a model gel-former obtained by modifying the three-body interactions of the Stillinger-Weber potential for silicon. This modification reduces the average coordination number and consequently shifts…
We numerically study a simple model for thermo-reversible colloidal gelation in which particles can form reversible bonds with a predefined maximum number of neighbors. We focus on three and four maximally coordinated particles, since in…
Diatomic nitrogen is an archetypal molecular system known for its exceptional stability and complex behavior at high pressures and temperatures, including rich solid polymorphism, formation of energetic states, and an insulator-to-metal…
The structural arrest of a polymeric suspension might be driven by an increase of the cross--linker concentration, that drives the gel transition, as well as by an increase of the polymer density, that induces a glass transition. These…
The hydrophobic effect is the dominant force which drives a protein towards its native state, but its physics has not been thoroughly understood yet. We introduce an exactly solvable model of the solvation of non-polar molecules in water,…
This paper examines the response of electrolyte-saturated polymer gels, embedded with charged spherical inclusions, to a weak gradient of electrolyte concentration. These composites present a model system to study microscale electrokinetic…
We study the ionic equilibria and interactions of neutral semi-permeable spherical shells immersed in electrolyte solutions, including polyions. Although the shells are uncharged, only one type of ions of the electrolyte can permeate them,…
We report a new technique for fabricating metallic electrodes on insulating substrates with separations on the 1 nm scale. The fabrication technique, which combines lithographic and electrochemical methods, provides atomic resolution…