Related papers: Oscillating chemical reactions enable communicatio…
In this letter, we demonstrate that oscillations and excitable behavior can be imparted to a chemical network by coupling the network to an active hydrogel. We discuss two mechanisms by which the mechanical response of the gel to the…
Self-oscillating gels are chemically-responsive hydrogels coupled to an oscillating chemical reaction of a stimulus solute. In response to the oscillating solute concentration field, responsive gels periodically swell and deswell, expelling…
We report on a synthesis protocol, experimental characterization and theoretical modeling of active pulsatile Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) hydrogels. Our two-step synthesis technique allows independent optimization of the geometry, the…
We study water-in-oil emulsion droplets, running the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, that form a new type of active matter unit. These droplets, stabilised by surfactants dispersed in the oil medium, are capable of internal chemical…
Thermo-responsive hydrogels are smart materials that rapidly switch between hydrophilic (swollen) and hydrophobic (shrunken) states when heated past a threshold temperature, resulting in order-of-magnitude changes in gel volume. Modelling…
Chemical communication, response, and feedback are key requirements for the function of adaptive materials with life-like properties. However, how communication on the single cell-level impacts the collective structural, dynamical and…
Thermo-responsive hydrogels are a promising material for creating controllable actuators for use in micro-scale devices, since they expand and contract significantly (absorbing or expelling fluid) in response to relatively small temperature…
Acid-induced release of stored ions from polyacrylic acid hydrogels (with a free surface fully permeable to the ion and acid flux) was observed to increase the gel osmotic pressure that leads to rapid, temporary swelling faster than the…
We investigate the heterogeneous dynamics in a model, where chemical gelation and glass transition interplay, focusing on the dynamical susceptibility. Two independent mechanisms give raise to the correlations, which are manifested in the…
We discuss a class of models for particulate gels in which the particle contacts are described by an effective interaction combining a two-body attraction and a three-body angular repulsion. Using molecular dynamics, we show how varying the…
Owing to the possibility of controlling its specific mechanical behaviors up taken by irradiated by light at particular wavelengths, the photoisomerization hydrogels have a broad range of potential applications. A theory connecting the…
We investigate the collective behavior of suspended thermoresponsive microgels, that expel solvent and subsequently decrease in size upon heating. Using a binary mixture of differently thermoresponsive microgels, we demonstrate how…
After thrown onto a solid substrate, very soft spherical gels bounce repeatedly. Separate rheological measurements suggest that these balls can be treated as nearly elastic. The Hertz contact deformation expected in the static (elastic)…
We investigated the actuation performances of anisotropic gels driven by mechanical and chemical stimuli, in terms of both deformation processes and stroke--curves, and distinguished between the fast response of gels before diffusion starts…
Various resonant and near-resonant patterns form in a light-sensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction in response to a spatially-homogeneous time-periodic perturbation with light. The regions (tongues) in the forcing frequency and…
Inspired by dense contractile tissues, where cells are subject to periodic deformation, we formulate and study a generic hydrodynamic theory of pulsating active liquids. Combining mechanical and phenomenological arguments, we postulate that…
We use molecular dynamics simulations of a simple model to show that dispersions of slightly elongated colloidal particles with long-range dipolar interactions, like ferrofluids, can form a physical (reversible) gel at low volume fractions.…
Microgels are soft colloidal particles that, when dispersed in a solvent, swell and deswell in response to changes in environmental conditions, such as temperature, concentration, and $p$H. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we model bulk…
Biological systems achieve adaptive mechanical responses through reaction-diffusion processes that couple chemical wave propagation to structural transitions. Although synthetic hydrogels with enzymatic reactions offer a platform for…
Hydrogels have had a profound impact in the fields of tissue engineering, drug delivery, and materials science as a whole. Due to the network architecture of these materials, imbibement with water often results in uniform swelling and…