Related papers: Modelling microgels with controlled structure acro…
We study the formation of a colloidal gel by means of Molecular Dynamics simulations of a model for colloidal suspensions. A slowing down with gel-like features is observed at low temperatures and low volume fractions, due to the formation…
Investigations of free-standing liquid films enjoy an increasing popularity due to their relevance for many fundamental and applied scientific problems. They constitute soap bubbles and foams, serve as membranes for gas transport or as…
We investigated the complexation of thermoresponsive anionic poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNiPAM) microgels and cationic $\epsilon$-polylysine ($\epsilon$-PLL) chains. By combining electrophoresis, light scattering, transmission electron…
Endowing materials with physical intelligence holds the key for a progress leap in robotic systems. In spite of the growing success for macroscopic devices, transferring these concepts to the microscale presents several challenges connected…
A low-temperature dynamical transition has been reported in several proteins. We provide the first observation of a `protein-like' dynamical transition in nonbiological aqueous environments. To this aim we exploit the popular colloidal…
We present a pedagogical review of the swelling thermodynamics and phase transitions of polymer gels. In particular, we discuss how features of the volume phase transition of the gel's osmotic equilibrium is analogous to other transitions…
We use Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the thermodynamical behaviour of aggregates consisting of few superparamagnetic particles in a colloidal suspension. The potential energy surface of this classical two-level system with a stable…
Multiphase systems are ubiquitous in engineering, biology, and materials science, where understanding their complex interactions and rheological behavior is crucial for advancing applications ranging from emulsion stability to cellular…
Polyelectrolyte (PE) hydrogels can dynamically respond to external stimuli, such as changes in pH and temperature, which benefits their use for smart materials and nanodevices with tunable properties. We investigate equilibrium…
Thin elastic solids are easily deformed into a myriad of three-dimensional shapes, which may contain sharp localized structures as in a crumpled candy wrapper, or have smooth and diffuse features like the undulating edge of a flower.…
Hybrid molecular dynamics/Monte Carlo simulations used to study melts of unentangled, thermoreversibly associating supramolecular polymers. In this first of a series of papers, we describe and validate a model that is effective in…
Ionic microgel particles in a good solvent swell to an equilibrium size determined by a balance of electrostatic and elastic forces. When crowded, ionic microgels deswell owing to a redistribution of microions inside and outside the…
Low-energy structures of a hybrid system consisting of a polymer and an attractive nanowire substrate as well as the thermodynamics of the adsorption transition are studied by means of Monte Carlo computer simulations. Depending on…
We use a simple and efficient computer model to investigate the physical properties of bilayer membranes. The amphiphilic molecules are modeled as short rigid trimers with finite range pair interactions between them. The pair potentials…
The wavelength of a periodic spatial structure of Turing type is an intrinsic property of the considered reaction-diffusion dynamics and we address the question of its control at the microscopic scale for given dynamical parameters. The…
We present a new algorithm to design lightweight cellular materials with required properties in a multi-physics context. In particular, we focus on a thermo-mechanical setting, by promoting the design of unit cells characterized both by an…
Stimuli-responsive gels are the gels that vary the volume depending on environmental conditions. It has been reported that the stimuli-responsive gel with an inhomogeneous structure exhibits faster volume change than the gel without it. It…
New experiments for water at the surface of proteins at very low temperature display intriguing dynamic behaviors. The extreme conditions of these experiments make it difficult to explore the wide range of thermodynamic state points needed…
Control of physical behaviors of nematic colloids and colloidal crystals has been demonstrated by tuning particle shape, topology, chirality and surface charging. However, the capability of altering physical behaviors of such soft matter…
Folding and aggregation of proteins, the interaction between proteins and membranes, as well as the adsorption of organic soft matter to inorganic solid substrates belong to the most interesting challenges in understanding structure and…