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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…
Motivated by the fine compositional control observed in membraneless droplet organelles in cells, we investigate how a sharp binding-unbinding transition can occur between multivalent client molecules and receptors embedded in a porous…
In inertial microfluidics lift forces cause a particle to migrate across streamlines to specific positions in the cross section of a microchannel. We control the rotational motion of a particle and demonstrate that this allows to manipulate…
Ordering nanoparticles into a desired super-structure is often crucial for their technological applications. We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the assembly of nanoparticles in a polymer brush randomly grafted to a planar…
Focused laser beams allow controlling mechanical motion of objects and can serve as a tool for assembling complex micro and nano structures in space. While in a vast majority of cases small particles experience attractive gradient forces…
The behavior of a polyelectrolyte adsorbed on a charged surface of high-dielectric constant is studied by both Monte-Carlo simulation and analytical methods. It is found that in a low ionic strength medium, the transition is first-order…
Optical fields can induce forces between microscopic objects, thus giving rise to new structures of matter. We study theoretically these optical forces between two spheres, either isolated in water, or in presence of a flat dielectric…
Selectivity of particles in a region of space can be achieved by applying external potentials to influence the particles in that region. We investigate static and dynamical properties of size selectivity in binary fluid mixtures of two…
How frictional effects emerge at the microscopic level in particulate materials remains a challenging question, particularly in systems subject to thermal fluctuations due to the transient nature of interparticle contacts. Here, we directly…
We examine the solvent-mediated interaction between two neutral colloidal particles due to preferential adsorption in a near-critical binary mixture. We take into account the renormalization effect due to the critical fluctuations using the…
The double-slit experiment is the most direct demonstration of interference between individual quantum objects. Since similar experiments with single particles and more slits produce interference fringes reducible to a combination of…
The behavior of a polyelectrolyte adsorbed on a charged substrate of high-dielectric constant is studied by both Monte-Carlo simulation and analytical methods. It is found that in a low enough ionic strength medium, the adsorption…
Intermolecular forces are known to precipitate adhesion events between solid bodies. Inspired by a macro-scale experiment showing the hysteretic adhesion of a piece of flexible tape over a plastic substrate, we develop here a model of…
Achieving and exceeding the diversity of colloidal analogs of chemical elements and molecules as building blocks of matter has been the central goal and challenge of colloidal science ever since Einstein introduced the colloidal atom…
We study numerically how multiple deformable capsules squeeze into a constriction. This situation is largely encountered in microfluidic chips designed to manipulate living cells, which are soft entities. We use fully three-dimensional…
We investigate the folding and forced-unbinding transitions of adsorbed semiflexible polymer chains using theory and simulations. These processes describe biologically relevant phenomena that include adhesive interactions between proteins…
A quantitative model of the mobility of functionalized particles at the interface is pivotal to understanding important systems in biology and nanotechnology. In this work, we investigate the emerging dynamics of particles anchored through…
Collective coherent light scattering by polarizable particles creates surprisingly strong, long range inter-particle forces originating from interference of the light scattered by different particles. While for monochromatic laser beams…
A highly accurate, single-pass, unbiased frictional contact algorithm for higher-order elements based on the concept of midplane is presented. Higher-order elements offer a lucrative choice for contact problems as they can better represent…
Self-assembly of colloidal particles is a promising avenue to control the shape and dynamics of larger aggregates. However, achieving the necessary fine control over the dynamics and specificity of the bonds between such particles remains a…