Soft Matter最新文献

{"title":"Hidden amplitude and dynamical information in phase-separation spectra.","authors":"Boliang Yu, Ruixin Zhou, Jiaxing Yuan","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00865h","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00865h","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Phase separation is a fundamental phenomenon across diverse physical and biological systems. However, similar phase-separation patterns can often arise from fundamentally different underlying dynamics, making the identification of these driving mechanisms from static images highly difficult. Framewise variance normalization removes fluctuation amplitude from an observation, but not from the dynamics that generate later patterns. The current normalized spectrum therefore need not determine its own future. We study this effect in three two-dimensional phase-separation models that change transport, add active driving, or suppress large-scale separation. For paired initial fields, their normalized spectra evolve identically in the linear regime. The Cahn-Hilliard-Oono model with a restoring term provides an exact example: damping does not directly change how the normalized spectrum evolves when both equations are applied to the same field. It nevertheless changes the hidden amplitude, which alters the subsequent nonlinear shape. An exact comparison separates the immediate effect of changing the equation from the effect of reaching a different state through earlier evolution. It also reveals strong cancellation between these effects in the active model and weaker cancellation in the mobility model. As a practical test, spectral histories improve classification by about 6-9 percentage points at several later observation windows, although the gain depends on quench depth and spectral construction. Furthermore, this classification gain survives compression to the same input dimension as a single endpoint. Temporal spectra can therefore reveal dynamical consequences of information absent from every individual normalized frame.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149293389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Limit cycle phenomenology of self-diffusiophoretic oblate Janus spheroids near an inert planar wall.","authors":"Rafe Md Abu Zayed, Andrew Fuller, Amir Nourhani, Paul E Lammert","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00830e","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00830e","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We study a prescribed-flux model of a self-diffusiophoretic oblate spheroidal Janus particle near an inert planar wall as a function of both aspect ratio and ratio of phoretic mobility on the two halves. This extends previous work to far-from-spherical shapes and demonstrates the importance of particle shape with respect to wall effects. We show the interest of these systems from a dynamical systems perspective. The phase diagram in the parameter plane of aspect ratio and ratio of phoretic mobility over the active and passive half-surfaces has among its prominent features a supercritical and a subcritical Hopf bifurcation which appear, at low resolution, to smoothly merge. Elucidation of the novel bifurcation structure which links them demonstrates that this class of models has unexpectedly complex limit set behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149293386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Charge density effect of micelles on liquid-liquid phase separation.","authors":"Mohsen Farshad, Atanu Baksi, Jonathan K Whitmer","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00103c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00103c","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) is central to the organization of biological and synthetic soft matter systems, yet how electrostatic interactions control condensation remains incompletely understood. Using coarse-grained molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we investigate LLPS in charged micelle-polymer mixtures, focusing on how micelle charge affects phase behavior. We adopt a mapping from zeta potential (<i>ζ</i>) to the reduced Yukawa charge (<i>q</i>*), calibrated to experiments within a model oligomer-micelle mixture patterned on peptide amphiphile assemblies in the presence of dasiglucagon (DG). After identifying <i>q</i>_DG ≈ -6<i>e</i> as the effective DG charge required for LLPS, systematic variation of the micellar charge reveals a finite charge window bounded by lower and upper critical charges: increasing charge initially enhances micelle-polymer attraction and densifies the liquid complex, but at high charge, growing micelle-micelle repulsion destabilizes the dense phase. The predicted window overlaps the experimentally measured <i>ζ</i> values, and the <i>ζ</i> of glucose-associated PA-PBA lies within the island-like pocket, underscoring the dual regulatory role of electrostatics.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149284228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Viscoelastic and dielectric signatures in PMMA blends with ionic liquids.","authors":"Hiroaki Nobuoka, Tobias Schwan, Manfred Wilhelm, Osamu Urakawa, Tadashi Inoue","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00206d","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00206d","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was blended with two ionic liquids (ILs), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (BMIM-TFSI) and <i>N</i>-butyl-<i>N</i>-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (Pyr₁₄-TFSI), to clarify how the IL amount and structure govern the viscoelastic and dielectric responses of the composite material. Samples were prepared by solution casting, followed by thermal, mechanical, and dielectric characterization. Differential scanning calorimetry revealed a monotonic decrease in glass transition temperature as a function of IL weight fraction, consistent with plasticization. Rheological measurements showed a pronounced reduction in the rubbery-plateau value and a decrease in segmental relaxation time, reflecting the plasticizing effect of ILs. Dielectric spectroscopy revealed a pronounced shift of the dominant loss peak to higher frequencies, consistent with accelerated IL-related dipolar/ionic dynamics in the blends, while the β-relaxation remained essentially unchanged and DC conductivity emerged. Fragility analysis further demonstrated suppressed cooperativity in segmental dynamics. Overall, ILs modify both segmental dynamics and charge transport. By combining rheology and dielectric spectroscopy, we obtain molecular-level insight into these changes and derive design guidelines for transparent antistatic polymer films.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149284190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Function, complexity and thermodynamics in adaptive and intelligent soft-matter systems: an information-theoretical conceptual framework.","authors":"George S Attard","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00618c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00618c","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The terms responsive, adaptive and intelligent are widely used in the context of materials science and soft matter, but are qualitative in nature. There is currently no quantitative basis on which systems from different areas of materials science can be compared with one another on a common axis. This paper proposes a conceptual framework intended to address this gap. The approach is to treat any material that transforms a stimulus into an output as an information channel. Three classes of material can be distinguished by how the input stimulus maps onto the output effect: a memoryless map (responsive), a state-conditioned map (adaptive), and a feedback-modified channel (intelligent). Three information-theoretic complexity metrics are defined on this basis: configurational diversity <i>I</i>₁, functional selectivity <i>I</i>₂, and stimulus-response information transfer <i>I</i>₃. Treating the material as the information channel leads to a heuristic relationship between the internal complexity of the material and the information transfer achieved. This specifies an associated optimal internal complexity <i>N*</i> that is set by transmission efficiency, stimulus energy and thermal noise. A two-plane benchmarking scheme is proposed: a dynamic plane pairing the volumetric information rate, <i>İ</i>₃/V, with power density <i>P</i> against the Landauer-Bérut floor, and a companion static plane (<i>I</i>₁, <i>I</i>₂). Eighteen representative systems spanning synthetic soft matter, biology and hard-matter architectures are placed on these coordinates to illustrate how the framework can be employed. Within the uncertainties inherent in this approach the systems appear to separate into broad bands above the Landauer-Bérut benchmark. The proposed framework establishes the foundations that may lead to validated design rules through community-contributed conventions and further data sets.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149284247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A theoretical model for the transport of solute through hydrogels containing oil droplets.","authors":"Joseph J Webber, Stefan A F Bon, Thomas D Montenegro-Johnson","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00786d","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00786d","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hydrogels are often used as reservoirs for chemicals such as drugs or soil treatments, but they can release their payload much too quickly as they dry out or as solute simply diffuses through the water in the gel. It is known that doping gels with oil droplets, creating a material known as an 'emulgel', can trap solute and slow this release, but quantifying this effect is challenging. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to deduce the effective transport properties of an inhomogeneous porous medium comprising two distinct solvent phases which interact with a solute species in different ways. We then show that a rigorous mathematical approach built on the separation of timescales between bulk transport and solute trapping can give an expression for the effective diffusivity as a function of the amount of oil present and its distribution, outlining the application of these composite materials to systems delivering beneficial agents for pharmaceutical and agricultural purposes.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149284158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quinone-derived carbon-dot photoinitiation regulates network mechanics and thermoresponsive phase separation in P(NIPAM-<i>co</i>-AAm) hydrogels.","authors":"Manman Zhang, Huijuan Wang, Shaoxuan Gao, Chuang Peng, Xianrui Meng, Tao Ding, Wenkai Zhang","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00820h","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00820h","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The macroscopic response of a thermoresponsive hydrogel depends on how its network translates molecular dehydration into mesoscale phase separation, yet the role of photoinitiating chemistry in this multiscale process is rarely considered. Here, quinone-derived carbon dots (Q-CDs), paired with <i>N</i>,<i>N</i>,<i>N</i>',<i>N</i>'-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED), were used as a photoinitiating system for thermoresponsive poly(<i>N</i>-isopropylacrylamide-<i>co</i>-acrylamide) hydrogels, with the fluorescent Q-CDs retained in the resulting network. Compared with an Irgacure 2959-initiated reference, the Q-CD/TEMED-initiated hydrogel exhibited a finer porous morphology and a markedly enhanced elastic response. Differential scanning calorimetry revealed essentially unchanged endothermic transition temperatures near 49 °C, whereas the optically determined phase-transition temperature decreased from approximately 58 to 45 °C; the Q-CD/TEMED-derived hydrogel also exhibited a narrower calorimetric heating-cooling hysteresis. This divergence suggests that Q-CD-mediated network formation influences the mesoscale development of phase-separated domains more strongly than the underlying polymer-water dehydration transition. The transparent-to-opaque response remained reproducible over 100 thermal cycles, while the detected Q-CD fluorescence decreased across the same transition region. These findings extend carbon-dot photoinitiation beyond hydrogel synthesis to a network-design strategy for regulating how molecular dehydration develops into mesoscale phase separation and macroscopic optical response.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149284244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Local mechanical invariance in a recycled biobased vitrimer - evidence from the vibrational density of states.","authors":"Andreas Schönhals, Reiner Zorn, Margarita Kruteva, Shayan Ahmadi, Mateusz Dudziak, Eduardo F Martins, Dietmar Auhl, Fanni Juranyi, Paulina Szymoniak","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00610h","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00610h","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biobased vitrimers represent a promising class of recyclable thermosetting polymers due to their dynamic covalent networks. In this study, the local mechanical properties of a vitrimer system based on glycerol triglycidyl ether and a vanillin-derived imine hardener are investigated before and after recycling. Using inelastic neutron scattering, the low frequency vibrational density of states is analyzed, focusing on the Boson peak (BP) as a sensitive probe of local elasticity. The vitrimer exhibits a pronounced BP, with its position and shape remaining unchanged after recycling, indicating that the local elastic modulus is preserved. Comparison with the BP of poly(methyl methacrylate) reveals a higher maximum frequency of the Boson peak and lower Debye level for the vitrimer, suggesting a higher transverse sound velocity and shear modulus. These findings demonstrate that the recycling process does not compromise the microscopic mechanical integrity of the biobased vitrimer during a recycling process, supporting its potential for sustainable material applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149259695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Control and synchronization of capillary flows in stepped microchannels.","authors":"H Desu, N S Satpathi, L Malik, A K Sen","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00790b","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00790b","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Capillary-driven transport offers a simple, self-sustained alternative to externally pumped microfluidic systems, yet achieving precise control of such flows remains challenging. We experimentally and theoretically investigate capillary flow in rectangular microchannels when a liquid meniscus encounters a geometric step with varying channel width and height. Depending on the contact angle and step dimensions, the meniscus either pins or advances, defining distinct flow and no-flow regimes. Introducing a lateral offset between channel sidewalls provides an additional geometric control that enables reversible switching from a pinned to a flowing state, even for liquids with relatively high contact angles. We rationalize these transitions using numerical simulations and an energy-based scaling model that captures the balance between surface tension and Laplace pressure at the step. Finally, we demonstrate synchronization of capillary fronts in parallel microchannels by combining stepped and offset geometries. These results establish a simple, geometry-mediated mechanism for passive control and synchronization of capillary flows, expanding the design space for microfluidic systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149259720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Eu-DTPA-PE modulates temperature-dependent birefringence in polymer-free monoolein-based lipid particles.","authors":"Diba Allameh Zadeh, Gail E Fanucci","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00862c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00862c","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Lanthanide-chelating lipids offer a route to responsive soft submicron lipid-particle materials, yet how their interfacial properties encode membrane curvature and temperature-dependent optical behavior remain poorly understood. Here, polymer-free monoolein/DOPC submicron lipid particles doped with Eu-DTPA-PE, with the monoolein : (DOPC + Eu-DTPA-PE) molar ratio fixed at 17 : 3, over Eu loadings of 1-12.5 mol% are examined using temperature-dependent polarized light microscopy (PLM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and Eu³⁺ fluorescence to relate interfacial structure to curvature-linked changes in mesoscopic organization. In the absence of chelating lipids, MO/DOPC submicron lipid particles display an isotropic optical response at low temperature that reproducibly develops strong birefringence upon heating, behavior consistent with but not uniquely diagnostic of a transition from a cubic-like to a more anisotropic nonlamellar state. Introducing low Eu-DTPA levels (1-2.5 mol%) retains predominantly isotropic-appearing fields over a similar or modestly expanded lower-temperature range, consistent with altered interfacial interactions without requiring polymeric stabilizers. At higher Eu-DTPA-PE contents (≥5-12.5 mol%), the PLM micrographs exhibit increasingly extensive birefringent textures across the temperature series, although fixed-threshold image analysis identifies formulation-specific abrupt, broad, or nonpersistent changes rather than a single monotonic loading-dependent birefringence-onset sequence. DLS showed that the formulations remained submicron, colloidally stable lipid-particle dispersions across the full Eu-DTPA-PE loading series. Steady-state Eu³⁺ fluorescence revealed substantially enhanced emission for Eu-DTPA-PE lipid-particle formulations relative to aqueous EuCl₃, indicating a formulation-dependent Eu³⁺ emission response. The increased luminescence is consistent with a changed local Eu³⁺ environment and altered nonradiative quenching within the lipid assemblies; however, steady-state emission alone does not independently establish local hydration or coordination geometry. For the 10 and 12.5 mol% Eu-DTPA-PE (18 : 0) formulations, integrated Eu³⁺ emission normalized to ICP-MS-determined Eu concentration was similar, indicating that the greater raw emission at 12.5 mol% was largely explained by its greater Eu content. Together with earlier Gd-DTPA monoolein submicron lipid particles, these results establish lanthanide-chelating lipids as a modular platform in which chelator-lipid composition can modulate temperature-dependent birefringence and Eu³⁺ photophysical behavior in polymer-free monoolein-based submicron lipid particles.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149259726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}