New insights into re-entrant melting of microgel particles by polymer-induced aggregation experiments

10.1039/C7SM01922J

2018-04-11

While microgels are in general described as soft particles polystyrene (PS) microgels can be synthesized in a way that cross-link density has only a minor influence on their physical properties. Even though the particles swell in a good solvent the imparted s...

Modeling the free-radical polymerization of hexanediol diacrylate (HDDA): a molecular dynamics and graph theory approach

10.1039/C8SM00451J

2018-04-11

In the printing, coating and ink industries, photocurable systems are becoming increasingly popular and multi-functional acrylates are one of the most commonly used monomers due to their high reactivity (fast curing). In this paper, we use molecular dynamics ...

Synchronization in pairs of rotating active biomotors

10.1039/C8SM00022K

2018-04-11

Although synchronization is a well-known physical phenomenon, experimental studies of its emergence in living bacterial cells are still scarce. The difficulty in generating a controlled scenario to detect synchronization has limited the experimental outcomes ...

Determine electrospun morphologies from the properties of protein-polymer solutions

10.1039/C7SM02203D

2018-04-11

Integrating natural macromolecules, e.g. proteins, is a progressive trend to fabricate biocompatible sub-micrometer fibers with tunable diameters using electrospinning technique. The correlation between solution properties and electrospun morphologies is crit...

Soft Electrodes Combining Hydrogel and Liquid Metal

10.1039/C8SM00337H

2018-04-11

Soft and stretchable materials play an important role in the emerging fields of soft robotics, human-machine interfaces, and stretchable electronics. Hydrogels are compelling materials because they are soft, chemically tunable, biocompatible, and ionically co...

Adsorption of phospholipids at oil/water interfaces during emulsification is controlled by stress relaxation and diffusion

10.1039/C8SM00005K

2018-04-10

Adsorption of phosphatidylcholines at oil/water interfaces strongly deviates from spread monolayers at air/water surfaces. Understanding its nature and consequences could vastly improve applications in medical nanoemulsions and biotechnologies. Adsorption kin...

Influence of molecular weight between crosslinks on the mechanical properties of polymers formed via ring-opening metathesis

10.1039/C7SM02407J

2018-04-10

The apparent molecular weight between crosslinks (Mc,a) in a polymer network plays a fundamental role in the network mechanical response. We systematically varied Mc,a independent of strong noncovalent bonding by using ring-opening metathesis polymerization (...

Magnetically driven omnidirectional artificial microswimmers

10.1039/C8SM00230D

2018-04-10

We present an experimental realisation of two new artificial microswimmers that swim at low Reynolds number. The swimmers are externally driven with a periodically modulated magnetic field that induces an alternating attractive/repulsive interaction between t...

A structural comparison of casein micelles in cow, goat and sheep milk using X-ray scattering

10.1039/C8SM00458G

2018-04-10

The casein micelle is a flexible construct, with its key structural components being casein proteins and colloidal calcium phosphate nanoclusters. According to literature, milk from different species exhibits differences in composition and physicochemical pro...

Dual Marangoni effects and detection of traces of surfactants

10.1039/C8SM00266E

2018-04-10

We report controlled and tunable Marangoni flows resulting from concentration gradients that are induced by placing a droplet of volatile solute above the surface of a liquid. Condensation of the solute at the liquid surface results in a surface tension gradi...