Related papers: Under pressure: Hydrogel swelling in a granular me…

Graphene is the extreme material for molecular sensory and hydrogen storage applications because of its two-dimensional geometry and unique structure-property relationship. In this Letter, hydrogenation of graphene is discussed in the…

Metal hydrides remain an intriguing alternative to conventional gaseous and liquid hydrogen storage methods, offering high volumetric storage density and enhanced hydrogen storage safety at ambient conditions. In this regard, the…

We study swelling and structural properties of ionic microgel suspensions within a comprehensive coarse-grained model that combines the polymeric and colloidal natures of microgels as permeable, compressible, charged spheres governed by…

We investigate shear strength properties of wet granular materials in the pendular state (i.e. the state where the liquid phase is discontinuous) as a function of water content. Sand and glass beads were wetted and tested in a direct shear…

Historical monuments, outdoor stone sculptures and artworks made of porous materials are exposed to chemical and physical degradation over time. Presently, the most promising route for consolidation of weakened porous materials is the…

We study how confining the equilibrium hard-sphere fluid to restrictive one- and two-dimensional channels with smooth interacting walls modifies its structure, dynamics, and entropy using molecular dynamics and transition-matrix Monte Carlo…

Dense granular media have a compaction between the random loose and random close packings. For these dense media the concept of a granular pressure depending on compaction is not unanimously accepted because they are often in a "frozen"…

The hydrodynamic effects of macromolecular crowding inside cells is often studied in vitro by using polymers as crowding reagents. Confinement of polymers inside cell-sized droplets has been shown to affect the diffusion of small molecules.…

The mechanics of granular media at low liquid saturation levels remain poorly understood. Macroscopic mechanical properties are affected by microscale forces and processes, such as capillary forces, inter-particle friction, liquid flows,…

We present a study of the spreading of liquid droplets on a solid substrate at very small scales. We focus on the regime where effective wetting energy (binding potential) and surface tension effects significantly influence steady and…

When a gel absorbs solvent from surrounding, stress field is created in the gel, and this causes complex dynamics of the swelling behavior. Here we study this effect for disk-shaped gel by rigorously solving the diffusio-mechanical coupling…

We use event-driven pore network modeling to study the transport of hydrogel particles through disordered porous media -- a process that underlies diverse applications. By simulating particle advection, deformation, and clogging at the pore…

Confinement can modify the dynamics, the thermodynamics and the structural properties of liquid water, the prototypical anomalous liquid. By considering a general anomalous liquid, suitable for globular proteins, colloids or liquid metals,…

Thin films made of deformable micro- and nano-units, such as biological membranes, polymer interfaces, and particle-laden liquid surfaces, exhibit a complex behavior during drying, with consequences for various applications like wound…

We investigate the effective friction encountered by a mass sliding on a granular layer as a function of bed thickness and boundary roughness conditions. The observed friction has minima for a small number of layers before it increases and…

Hydrogen bonding plays a crucial role in biology and technology, yet it remains poorly understood and quantified despite its fundamental importance. Traditional models, which describe hydrogen bonds as electrostatic interactions between…

We report on the buckling and subsequent collapse of orthotropic elastic spherical shells under volume and pressure control. Going far beyond what is known for isotropic shells, a rich morphological phase space with three distinct regimes…

Microgels are complex macromolecules. These colloid-sized polymer networks possess internal degrees of freedom and, depending on the polymer(s) they are made of, can acquire a responsiveness to variations of the environment (temperature,…

We conducted experiments to directionally freeze agar hydrogel drops with different polymer concentrations, on a copper substrate maintained at low temperature. Unlike the water droplet studied in the literature, where the liquid part can…

Vesicular capsules are used to carry biochemicals in biology and liposome technology. Being water-permeable with differing interior and exterior compositions, they are necessarily under osmotic stress. Recent studies have underlined the…