Related papers: Phase Separation and Ripening in a Viscoelastic Ge…
We present a detailed numerical study of multi-component colloidal gels interacting sterically and obtained by arrested phase separation. Under deformation, we found that the interplay between the different intertwined networks is key.…
Liquid-liquid phase separation plays a major role in the formation and maintenance of various membrane-less subcellular structures in the cytoplasm and nucleus of cells. Biological condensates contain enhanced concentrations of proteins and…
We study a microscopically realistic model of a physical gel and use computer simulations to investigate its static and dynamic properties at thermal equilibrium. The phase diagram comprises a sol phase, a coexistence region ending at a…
In this work, we develop a rigorous theoretical framework for the evolution of linear viscoelastic properties across the sol-gel transition. More specifically, we derive general admissible expressions for the relaxation modulus and dynamic…
We present an extensive experimental study of mode-I, steady, slow crack dynamics in gelatin gels. Taking advantage of the sensitivity of the elastic stiffness to gel composition and history we confirm and extend the model for fracture of…
Phase separation plays a central role in the emergence of novel functionalities of correlated electron materials. The structure of the mixed-phase states depends strongly on the nonequilibrium phase-separation dynamics, which has so far yet…
In this paper we study a model for phase separation and damage in thermoviscoelastic materials. The main novelty of the paper consists in the fact that, in contrast with previous works in the literature (cf., e.g., [C. Heinemann, C. Kraus:…
The evolution of viscoelastic properties near the sol-gel transition is studied by performing oscillatory rheological measurements on two different types of systems: a colloidal dispersion and a thermo-responsive polymer solution under…
Solids deform and fluids flow, but soft glassy materials, such as emulsions, foams, suspensions, and pastes, exhibit an intricate mix of solid and liquid-like behavior. While much progress has been made to understand their elastic (small…
We investigate the swelling and shrinking of L_beta lamellar gel phases composed of surfactant and fatty alcohol after contact with aqueous poly(ethylene-glycol) solutions. The height change $\Delta h(t)$ is diffusion-like with a swelling…
We study the interplay between surface roughening and phase separation during the growth of binary films. Renormalization group calculations are performed on a pair of equations coupling the interface height and order parameter…
The past few years have seen many advances in our understanding of the dynamics of polymeric fluids. These include improvements on the successful reptation theory; an emerging molecular theory of semiflexible chain dynamics; and an…
We study pattern formation during tensile deformation of confined viscoelastic layers. The use of a model system (PDMS with different degrees of crosslinking) allows us to go continuously from a viscous liquid to an elastic solid. We…
A phase field model of a crystalline material at the mesoscale is introduced to develop the necessary theoretical framework to study plastic flow due to dislocation motion. We first obtain the elastic stress from the phase field free energy…
We investigate the fragmentation process of solid materials with crystalline and amorphous phases using the discrete element method. Damage initiates inside spherical samples above the contact zone in a region where the circumferential…
Proteins and nucleic acids can spontaneously self-assemble into membraneless droplet-like compartments, both in vitro and in vivo. A key component of these droplets are multi-valent proteins that possess several adhesive domains with…
The functionality of adhesives relies on their response under the application of a load. Yet, it has remained a challenge to quantitatively relate the macroscopic dynamics of peeling to the dissipative processes inside the adhesive layer.…
We present a minimal model to study liquid phase separation in a fixed pH ensemble. The model describes a mixture composed of macromolecules that exist in three different charge states and have a tendency to phase separate. We introduce the…
We employ the state-of-the-art molecular dynamics simulations to study the kinetics of phase separation and aging phenomena of segregating binary fluid mixtures imbibed in porous materials. Different random porous structures are considered…
We present theory and simulation of simultaneous chemical demixing and phase ordering in a polymer-liquid crystal mixture in conditions where isotropic-isotropic phase separation is metastable with respect to isotropic-nematic phase…