Related papers: Smectite phase separation is driven by emergent in…
We show that an electric field parallel to an electrically neutral surface can generate flow of electrolytic mixtures in small channels. We term this solvo-osmotic flow, since the flow is induced by the asymmetric preferential solvation of…
We present single contact friction experiments between a glassy polymer and smooth silica substrates grafted with alkylsilane layers of different coverage densities and morphologies. This allows us to adjust the polymer/substrate…
A plethora of solar dynamic events, such as the formation of active regions, the emission of jets and the occurrence of eruptions is often associated to the emergence of magnetic flux from the interior of the Sun to the surface and above.…
Interactions mediated by the cell membrane between inclusions, such as membrane proteins or antimicrobial peptides, play important roles in their biological activity. They also constitute a fascinating challenge for physicists, since they…
Mineral dissolution in porous media coupled with single- or multi-phase flows is pervasive in natural and engineering systems including carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and acid stimulation in reservoir engineering. Dissolution of…
Geochemical data provide key information on the timing of accretion and on the prevailing physical conditions during core/mantle differentiation. However, their interpretation depends critically on the efficiency of metal/silicate chemical…
The forces exerted by growing crystals on the surrounding materials play a major role in many geological processes, from diagenetic replacement to rock weathering and uplifting of rocks and soils. Although crystallization is a…
Inhomogeneities in deposition may lead to formation of rough surfaces, whose height fluctuations can be probed directly by scanning microscopy, or indirectly by scattering. Analytical or numerical treatments of simple growth models suggest…
Heterogeneous nucleation on catalytic surfaces plunged into a fluid is described through a stochastic model. To generate this non-equilibrium process we assume that the turn on of a electrostatic potential triggers a complex dynamics that…
Droplet deformations caused by substrate vibrations are ubiquitous in nature and highly relevant for applications such as microreactors and single-cell sorting. The vibrations can induce droplet oscillations, a fundamental process that…
Inspired by recent experiments, we present a phase-field model of microphase separation in an elastomer swollen with a solvent. The imbalance between the molecular scale of demixing and the mesoscopic scale beyond which elasticity operates…
We derive a phase field crystal model that couples the diffusive evolution of a microscopic structure with the fast dynamics of a macroscopic velocity field, explicitly accounting for the relaxation of elastic excitations. This model…
We study a generic model for the polarisation and motility of self-propelled soft objects, biological cells or biomimetic systems, interacting with a viscous substrate. The active forces generated by the cell on the substrate are modelled…
Organic molecular crystals are appealing for next-generation optoelectronic applications, most notably due to their multiexciton generation process that can increase the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. However, a general understanding…
Recent measurements of microsphere interactions in diverse media suggest that the standard dielectric-continuum models of solution-phase interactions are fundamentally incomplete. Experiments indicate that the interactions of charged…
Self-propelled particles include both self-phoretic synthetic colloids and various micro-organisms. By continually consuming energy, they bypass the laws of equilibrium thermodynamics. These laws enforce the Boltzmann distribution in…
In microfluidic devices, inertia drives particles to focus on a finite number of inertial focusing streamlines. Particles on the same streamline interact to form one-dimensional microfluidic crystals (or "particle trains"). Here we develop…
Serpentine minerals are important components of metamorphic rocks and promising geo-materials for nanotechnology. Lizardite, the most abundant serpentine mineral, can be transformed into chlorite during metamorphism. This intriguing phase…
The past two decades have seen a remarkable progress in the development of synthetic colloidal agents which are capable of creating directed motion in an unbiased environment at the microscale. These self-propelling particles are often…
We consider an electrolyte solution confined by semipermeable membranes in contact with a salt-free solvent. Membranes are uncharged, but since small counter-ions leak-out into infinite salt-free reservoirs, we observe a distance-dependent…