Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Rawan Khalaf, Andrea Viamonte, Etienne Ducrot, Remi Merindol, Serge Ravaine
Summary: Patchy particles have gained attention for their ability to develop directional and selective interactions and serve as building blocks for self-assembling innovative colloidal molecules and crystalline structures. A new approach using colloidal stamps has been introduced to pattern functional DNA patches on particle surfaces, enabling selective strand-displacement reactions. These produced DNA-patchy particles are ideal candidates for advanced precision and designer building blocks to self-assemble the next generation of colloidal materials.
Review
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Theodore Hueckel, Glen M. Hocky, Stefano Sacanna
Summary: Atoms serve as an inspiration for colloidal self-assembly, allowing building blocks to combine and confer functionality through principles like directionality, valence, and reversible binding. Tetrahedral structures inspired by carbon atoms bonding are now accessible through molecular mimetic colloidal building blocks. Complex colloidal particles can be synthesized and arranged in their own periodic table, leading to diverse assembly routes based on unique particle shape and surface chemistry.
NATURE REVIEWS MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Polymer Science
Lei Tian, Yanxing Liu, Dai Wang, Jiji Tan, Yankun Xie, Bei Li, Qiuyu Zhang, Caizhen Zhu, Jian Xu
Summary: This article reports on a swelling-induced self-assembly method for controlled colloidal clusters using a click seeded emulsion polymerization. The driving force is liquid bridging, and colloidal clusters with tunable structures can be prepared by regulating the formation of liquid bridges. Moreover, it is possible to transform patchy particles into clusters by changing the seed concentrations.
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Duanduan Wan, Sharon C. Glotzer
Summary: Computer simulations were used to investigate how thermal noise affects the photonic band gaps of a self-assembled photonic crystal. The study found that at intermediate packing densities, the TM band gap of the self-assembled system can be larger than that of identical rods arranged in a perfect lattice. Additionally, hollow rods were shown to substantially increase the band gap of transverse electric modes.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Jichuan Qiu, Yuxin Shang, Jianchang Xu, Younan Xia
Summary: The dissolution of a polymeric solid is a complex process that involves swelling and volume expansion before polymer chains can be disentangled and dissolved into a solvent. Recent studies have started to shed light on the mechanistic details involved in the formation of hollow particles through a template-directed process.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Albert Tianxiang Liu, Marek Hempel, Jing Fan Yang, Allan M. Brooks, Ana Pervan, Volodymyr B. Koman, Ge Zhang, Daichi Kozawa, Sungyun Yang, Daniel I. Goldman, Marc Z. Miskin, Andrea W. Richa, Dana Randall, Todd D. Murphey, Tomas Palacios, Michael S. Strano
Summary: Robots have components that work together to accomplish a task. Colloidal robots are particles capable of functions such as sensing, computation, communication, locomotion, and energy management that are all controlled by the particle itself. Their design and synthesis is an emerging area of interdisciplinary research drawing from materials science, colloid science, self-assembly, robophysics, and control theory.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
James B. Stahley, Mehdi B. Zanjani
Summary: This passage discusses the utilization of DNA-mediated assembly of colloidal particles to produce structures with desirable properties, and the study of ordered structures through self-assembly of multiple types of colloidal particles with different interaction matrices. The research involves Molecular Dynamics simulations to analyze growth behavior, predict target structures, and study phononic spectra of various ternary structures. The results provide guidelines for designing ternary and quadripartite colloidal structures, and suggest new directions for experimental work to target formation of multi-component colloidal superstructures.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Zhe Xu, Theodore Hueckel, William T. M. Irvine, Stefano Sacanna
Summary: The research team has created non-biological capsules that can capture, concentrate, store, and release microscopic payloads as needed. This design uses hollow colloids as cell-membrane mimics with a well-defined single pore, allowing for mass production and offering a blueprint for developing smart materials, micro-machinery, and artificial cell mimics.
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Carolina van Baalen, Jacopo Vialetto, Lucio Isa
Summary: This study explores the control of crystallization of colloidal particles at oil-water interfaces using oil-soluble electrolytes. The results show that the repulsion among particles can be continuously tuned by introducing nanomolar amounts of an organic salt into the oil.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
You-Jin Kim, Jae-Hyun Kim, In-Seong Jo, David J. Pine, Stefano Sacanna, Gi-Ra Yi
Summary: Colloidal clusters are formed by assembling PS particles onto liquid cores and can be purified through density gradient centrifugation. Hybrid colloidal clusters are obtained when using silica-PS core-shell particles, breaking symmetry in clusters.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Applied
Wanying Cui, Chunmiao Xia, Sheng Xu, Xinke Ye, Yihao Wu, Shukai Cheng, Rongli Zhang, Cuige Zhang, Zongcheng Miao
Summary: Dextran (Dex) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) based aqueous emulsions were stabilized using self-assembled chitosan colloidal particles (CS CPs). The stability of the emulsions was affected by pH, CS CPs concentration, polymer concentration, volume ratio of PEG solution to Dex solution, temperature, homogenizing speed, and homogenizing time. Sodium tripolyphosphate was used to cross-link the CS CPs at the emulsion droplets' interface to enhance the stability of the PEG-Dex emulsion. The CS CPs were further utilized as a support to immobilize urease and bovine serum albumin, and as a stabilizer to prepare W/W emulsion, enabling the encapsulation of active molecules at the water-water interface.
CARBOHYDRATE POLYMERS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Yu-Wei Sun, Zi-Qin Chen, You-Liang Zhu, Zhan-Wei Li, Zhong-Yuan Lu, Zhao-Yan Sun
Summary: A novel design strategy for constructing complex cluster crystals via hierarchical self-assembly of simple soft Janus colloids is proposed in this study. The formation of a new colloidal cluster-chi phase, resembling the alpha-manganese structure at a larger length scale, is achieved through two-step self-assembly process. The dynamic exchange of particles between clusters plays a critical role in stabilizing the phase, showing the potential to construct novel complex cluster crystals.
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Cicely Shillingford, Brandon M. Kim, Marcus Weck
Summary: Capillary assembly of liquid particles (CALP) is a microfabrication strategy for engineering arbitrarily shaped polymer colloids. CALP demonstrates versatility by engineering geometrically diverse Janus and patchy colloids using consecutive assembly and heterogeneous coassembly. It enables the design and fabrication of colloids with complex internal construction to target hierarchical functional materials, with the potential for further processing into colloid-based microscale devices.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Ian Williams, Sara Naderizadeh, Richard P. Sear, Joseph L. Keddie
Summary: This study develops a novel experimental protocol to observe coagulant gelation using light microscopy, revealing the physical chemistry properties and the growth patterns of the gel. The research finds that the abundance of the coagulant and diffusion are key factors affecting gel growth, and the gel thickness is limited by the available amount of coagulant.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Renhua Deng, Jiangping Xu, Gi-Ra Yi, Jin Woong Kim, Jintao Zhu
Summary: Responsive colloidal polymer particles with well-defined shapes and ordered internal mesostructures have attracted increasing attention for their potential applications in various fields. The 3D confined assembly of block copolymers in emulsion droplets has emerged as a promising method for fabricating these particles. The engineering of anisotropically shaped and internally ordered colloidal polymer particles shows great potential in stimuli-responsiveness and emerging applications.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2021)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Stefanie Heyden, Petia M. Vlahovska, Eric R. Dufresne
Summary: We propose an approach to measure surface elastic constants of soft solids. By analyzing the deformation of microscopic droplets, we can avoid the intrinsic nonlinearities associated with previous experiments and extract the surface material parameters.
JOURNAL OF THE MECHANICS AND PHYSICS OF SOLIDS
(2022)
Correction
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Thomas J. Boddeker, Kathryn A. Rosowski, Doris Berchtold, Leonidas Emmanouilidis, Yaning Han, Frederic H. T. Allain, Robert W. Style, Lucas Pelkmans, Eric R. Dufresne
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Thomas J. Boeddeker, Kathryn A. Rosowski, Doris Berchtold, Leonidas Emmanouilidis, Yaning Han, Frederic H. T. Allain, Robert W. Style, Lucas Pelkmans, Eric R. Dufresne
Summary: Many membraneless organelles form liquid-like domains through phase separation in living cells. Microtubule networks are denser near stress granules, and depolymerized microtubule sub-units localize near the surface of stress granules. A thermodynamic model suggests a weak affinity of microtubule sub-units for stress granule interfaces. This study demonstrates a non-specific affinity of proteins and other objects for droplet interfaces in cells.
Article
Cell Biology
Sandro M. Meier, Ana-Maria Farcas, Anil Kumar, Mahdiye Ijavi, Robert T. Bill, Joerg Stelling, Eric R. Dufresne, Michel O. Steinmetz, Yves Barral
Summary: This study investigates the interactions and functions of the Kar9 network in yeast cells, finding that it forms a liquid condensate at selected microtubule ends, serving as a mechanical coupling between microtubules and actin cables.
NATURE CELL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Alba Sicher, Richard Whitfield, Jan Ilavsky, Vinodkumar Saranathan, Athina Anastasaki, Eric R. Dufresne
Summary: Synthetic methods for controlling material structure at sub-micron scales usually rely on the self-assembly of structural building blocks with specific size and shape. In contrast, living systems can generate structures across various length scales directly from macromolecules using phase separation. This study presents a method to introduce and control structure at the nano- and microscales through solid-state polymerization, which has the unique ability to induce and arrest phase separation. By employing atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), the nucleation, growth, and stabilization of phase-separated poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA) domains in a solid polystyrene (PS) matrix can be controlled. The resulting nanostructures exhibit low size dispersity and high degrees of structural correlations, with the length scale being tunable by synthesis parameters.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2023)
Article
Geography, Physical
Robert W. Style, Dominic Gerber, Alan W. Rempel, Eric R. Dufresne
Summary: Most theoretical descriptions of stresses induced by freezing are based on the Clapeyron equation, which predicts the pressure exerted by a solid as it cools below its melting temperature. This equation has broad applications beyond glaciology, including geomorphology, civil engineering, food storage, and cryopreservation. However, the equation has limitations, assuming isotropic solid stresses and conditions near bulk equilibrium. In this study, we provide a rigorous derivation of the Clapeyron equation and explore its applicability in anisotropic stress states, demonstrating how the temperature and pressure ranges depend on material properties. We also improve the equation by adding higher-order terms to enhance its agreement with experimental data on pressure melting of ice.
JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Polymer Science
Tianchi Li, Eric R. Dufresne, Martin Kroeger, Stefanie Heyden
Summary: Fracture phenomena in soft materials pose a challenge in computational modeling. To quantitatively represent the material response, we study the nonlinear elastic response and fracture characteristics of siloxane molecules using molecular dynamics (MD) studies. Deviations from classical scalings are observed for short chains and a simple model captures the effect well. The dominant fracture mechanism depends on the applied force scale in a nonmonotonic fashion.
Meeting Abstract
Biophysics
Gianna C. Wolfisberg, Hendrik T. Spanke, Alexandre L. Torzynski, Eric R. Dufresne, Aleksander A. Rebane
BIOPHYSICAL JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Stefanie Heyden, Robert W. Style, Eric R. Dufresne
Summary: This article introduces a class of materials called inhomogeneously swollen elastomers, which consist of elastic matrices with inclusion phases in the form of microgel particles or osmolytes. The article develops a model based on incremental mean-field homogenization to analyze the mechanical properties of these materials. It also examines the effects of different constitutive models on the stiffness characteristics of the material.
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Tianqi Sai, Luis S. Froufe-Perez, Frank Scheffold, Bodo D. Wilts, Eric R. Dufresne
Summary: This article discusses the application of pigments in structural colors and demonstrates that pigments can create bright structural colors at wavelengths outside their absorption band.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Maria Feofilova, Silvan Schuepp, Roman Schmid, Florian Hacker, Hendrik T. Spanke, Nicolas Bain, Katharine E. Jensen, Eric R. Dufresne
Summary: This study investigates the organization of diatoms and discovers two competing tendencies, possibly controlled by different biological pathways. One tendency is the local organization of triangular lattice pores, while the other tendency is the global pointing of lattice vectors towards a center of symmetry. This competition results in a frustrated triangular lattice with defects concentrated near the center.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Simon Moser, Yanxia Feng, Oncay Yasa, Stefanie Heyden, Michael Kessler, Esther Amstad, Eric R. Dufresne, Robert K. Katzschmann, Robert W. Style
Summary: Inspired by the cellular design of plant tissue, this study presents a method for making versatile, tough, highly water-swelling composites. By embedding highly swelling hydrogel particles inside tough, water-permeable, elastomeric matrices, the resulting composites inherit the properties of both hydrogels and elastomers. These hydroelastomers are easy to fabricate, based on widely-available materials, and can be molded or extruded into complex swelling geometries, making them excellent candidates for soft robotics and swelling-based actuation.
Article
Polymer Science
Manon Rolland, Eric R. Dufresne, Nghia P. Truong, Athina Anastasaki
Summary: This study elucidates the role of a surface-active statistical copolymer in low-energy miniemulsions and reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization, enabling the design of new surface-active statistical copolymers. The study found that the copolymer ratio and molecular weight significantly affect the interfacial tension and nanodroplet size, and successfully synthesized surface-active copolymers with lower interfacial tension. Furthermore, these copolymers can trigger the polymerization of styrene, producing nanoparticles with different morphologies.
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Hendrik T. Spanke, Jaime Agudo-Canalejo, Daniel Tran, Robert W. Style, Eric R. Dufresne
Summary: Lipid membranes act as barriers between cells and their subcompartments, binding and enveloping particles of various sizes. Wrapping plays a crucial role in many biological processes, but the dynamics of wrapping have received little attention.
PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Carla Fernandez-Rico, Tianqi Sai, Alba Sicher, Robert W. Style, Eric R. Dufresne
Summary: Phase separation is a common process in various biological, organic, and inorganic systems, playing a role in regulating cellular processes and creating composite materials. While nature demonstrates precise control over phase separation for vibrant colors in bird feathers, achieving the same level of precision in synthetic materials presents challenges. Emerging methods based on elastic polymer networks show promise in controlling phase separation.
