Related papers: Smectite phase separation is driven by emergent in…
Controlling interfaces of phase separating fluid mixtures is key to creating diverse functional soft materials. Traditionally, this is accomplished with surface-modifying chemical agents. Using experiment and theory, we study how mechanical…
We present results of molecular dynamics simulations on lithium metasilicate over a broad range of temperatures for which the silicate network is frozen in but the lithium ions can still be equilibrated. The lithium dynamics is studied via…
We discuss theoretically, using density-functional theory, the phase stability of nematic and smectic ordering in a suspension of platelets of the same thickness but with a high polydispersity in diameter, and study the influence of…
Soft modulated phases have been shown to undergo complex morphological transitions, in which layer remodeling induced by mean and Gaussian curvatures plays a major role. This is the case in smectic films under thermal treatment, where focal…
Coherent misfitting precipitates in elastically stressed media such as $\gamma \prime$ particles in nickel-based super-alloys show various splitting patterns such as doublets, quartets, or octets due to their misfit strain energy. While it…
We consider the interactions between two uncharged planar macroscopic surfaces immersed in an electrolyte solution which are induced by interfacial selectivity. These forces are taken into account by introducing a depletion free-energy…
Active emulsions can spontaneously form self-propelled droplets or phoretic micropumps. It has been predicted that the interaction with their self-generated chemical fields can lead to multistable higher-order flows and chemodynamic…
A phenomenological free energy model is proposed to describe the behavior of smectic liquid crystals, an intermediate phase that exhibits orientational order and layering at the molecular scale. Advantageous properties render the functional…
Colloidal particles that are confined to an interface effectively form a two-dimensional fluid. We examine the dynamics of such colloids when they are subject to a constant external force, which drives them in a particular direction over…
An intrinsic feature of nearly all internal interfaces in crystalline systems (homo- and hetero-phase) is the presence of disconnections (topological line defects constrained to the interface that have both step and dislocation character).…
Biomolecular condensates in cells are often rich in catalytically-active enzymes. This is particularly true in the case of the large enzymatic complexes known as metabolons, which contain different enzymes that participate in the same…
The premelting of ice is well known, but little is known about how the premelted and solid surfaces convert to each other. In this work, the transition dynamics between two phases are revealed with large-scale molecular dynamics…
We analyze the displacements of the particles of a glass-forming molecular liquid perpendicular to a confining solid surface, using extensive molecular dynamics simulations with atomistic models. In the vicinity of an attractive surface,…
The static friction between crystalline surfaces separated by a molecularly thin layer of adsorbed molecules is calculated using molecular dynamics simulations. These molecules naturally lead to a finite static friction that is consistent…
We predict the structural interaction of crystalline solid-melt interfaces using amplitude equations which are derived from classical density functional theory or phase-field-crystal modeling. The solid ordering decays exponentially on the…
Erosion shapes our landscape and occurs when a sufficient shear stress is exerted by a fluid on a sedimented layer. What controls erosion at a microscopic level remains debated, especially near the threshold forcing where it stops. Here we…
At the surfaces of autophoretic colloids, slip velocities arise from local chemical gradients that are many-body functions of particle configuration and activity. For rapid chemical diffusion, coupled with slip-induced hydrodynamic…
Self-assembly of matter in solution generally relies on attractive interactions that overcome entropy and drive the formation of higher-order molecular and particulate structures. Such interactions play key roles in a variety of contexts,…
Review of selected fundamental topics on the interaction between phase transformations, fracture, and other structural changes in inelastic materials is presented. It mostly focuses on the concepts developed in the author's group over last…
Letting free polymers diffuse from solution into a crosslinked polymer gel is often a crucial processing step in the synthesis of multiphase polymer-based gels, e.g., core-shell microgels. Here we use coarse-grained molecular dynamics…