Soft MatterPub Date : 2026-10-07DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00328a
Virgile Thiévenaz, Nathan Vani, Alban Sauret
{"title":"Suspensions of non-Brownian rods: droplet pinch-off, onset of heterogeneity and effective extensional viscosity.","authors":"Virgile Thiévenaz, Nathan Vani, Alban Sauret","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00328a","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6sm00328a","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The stretching and pinch-off of a liquid bridge is a simple way to probe when a suspension of particles stops behaving as a continuum. In this study, we consider density-matched suspensions of rigid nylon fibers with aspect ratios (length over diameter) ranging from 2 to 84, and volume fractions <i>φ</i> spanning from the dilute to the concentrated regime. High-speed imaging of pendant-drop breakup reveals three successive regimes, as previously observed for spherical particles: an equivalent-fluid regime at early times, a dislocation regime corresponding to the separation of the rods, and a final regime controlled by the interstitial liquid once the neck is devoid of rods. The thresholds between these regimes follow the previously proposed scaling for spherical particles, in which the rod length, rather than the rod diameter, is used as the relevant discrete scale. In the equivalent-fluid regime, pinch-off also leads to an effective extensional viscosity that increases with both volume fraction and aspect ratio. This viscosity is not equal to the shear viscosity measured in a parallel-plate rheometer, but both sets of data are well described by Mills' law using a critical volume fraction <i>ϕ</i>*. Finally, the critical volume fraction <i>ϕ</i>* decreases monotonically with the aspect ratio and is well captured by an empirical law. These results show that pinch-off is a sensitive probe of continuum breakdown in anisotropic suspensions and that, for rigid rods, the rod length controls the onset of heterogeneous thinning.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":"6455-6463"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704593","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}
Soft MatterPub Date : 2026-10-07DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00601a
Hongxu Zhan, Yonglin Zhang, Ying Zhao, Dan Li, Jinglei Yang
{"title":"Kinetic gating of interfacial instability directs topology evolution in flow-regulated interfacial polymerization.","authors":"Hongxu Zhan, Yonglin Zhang, Ying Zhao, Dan Li, Jinglei Yang","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00601a","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6sm00601a","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Interfacial polymerization (IP) is fundamentally governed by the reaction-induced phase separation (RIPS), a condensed chemical process that enables the fabrication of functional polymer films, microcapsules, and nanofibers. However, IP topology evolution is highly non-equilibrium, with thermodynamic phase separation and kinetic barriers remaining difficult to decouple and control. In this work, we isolated and quantified thermodynamic-kinetic competition using coaxial microfluidics, employing fluid advection as a tunable kinetic parameter to gate thermodynamic instability. Two distinct pathways emerge: thermodynamically-dominated yielding disordered precipitation, and kinetically-dominated suppressing bulk separation and enabling ordered growth. Additionally, we proposed steady interfacial flow velocity as a quantitative descriptor, validated by phenomenological modeling and experimental data. Furthermore, a reaction-diffusion-advection model was developed to reveal the microscale free energy landscape governing oligomer generation <i>versus</i> advective removal. This framework demonstrates how external kinetic fields regulate non-equilibrium topological pathways, enabling predictive rational design of functional polymers through condensed chemical principles.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":"6464-6474"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148975100","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}
Soft MatterPub Date : 2026-10-07DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00296j
Jiusi Zhang, Chung Wing Chan, Bo Li, Rui Zhang
{"title":"Topological defects mediate collective transport of confluent cells.","authors":"Jiusi Zhang, Chung Wing Chan, Bo Li, Rui Zhang","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00296j","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6sm00296j","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Collective cell migration governs a range of physiological and pathological processes, from tissue morphogenesis to cancer invasion, in which topological defects arise as an inevitable consequence of frequent cellular rearrangement and migration. Here, we employ the active vertex model to investigate structural defects generated in the wake of transported cells. We find that while the drag coefficient of a cell in a perfect lattice is anisotropic, the threshold drag force required to mobilize the cell is isotropic. Remarkably, we find that dragging two neighboring cells along the direction of least resistance minimizes lattice disruption. By comparing defect-healing behaviors across different physical models, we disentangle the contributions of cell adhesion and many-body interactions. Together, our findings provide new insights into the topological organization of confluent tissues during collective migration, advancing our physical understanding of cellular transport processes such as wound healing, tissue repair, and cancer metastasis.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":"6391-6407"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148987230","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}
Soft MatterPub Date : 2026-10-06DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00407e
Zhou Wang, Yi Zhang, Zhixi Duan
{"title":"A mechanically reinforced nano-montmorillonite-based injectable hydrogel supporting bone-related cell migration.","authors":"Zhou Wang, Yi Zhang, Zhixi Duan","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00407e","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00407e","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The use of nano-montmorillonite (MMT) as a mechanical reinforcing filler in non-autologous implants to promote cell proliferation and migration represents a potential strategy for bone regeneration. In this work, a thermosensitive injectable hydrogel (F@MMT) was fabricated as an <i>in situ</i>-forming system using narrow MMT nanosheets. The incorporation of MMT nanosheets enhanced the mechanical properties of the crosslinked hydrogel and created uniform MMT active sites in the microporous network. At the optimal formulation, the storage modulus increased by 21.14% with rapid crosslinking within 30-50 s at 37 °C. <i>In vitro</i> experiments confirmed the F@MMT biocompatibility and its features that promote cell migration in HUVECs and MC3T3-E1 cells, which contribute to supporting cellular activities in bone-related tissue repair. These results indicate that the F@MMT hydrogel exhibits potential as an injectable bioactive material for bone regeneration applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149101204","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}
Soft MatterPub Date : 2026-10-06DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00672h
Xue-Ling Luo, Nikolaos Bouklas, Chung-Yuen Hui
{"title":"How do 3M Command™ strips work? A fracture mechanics approach.","authors":"Xue-Ling Luo, Nikolaos Bouklas, Chung-Yuen Hui","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00672h","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00672h","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Removable adhesive systems such as 3M Command™ strips are designed to support substantial loads while allowing clean, damage-free removal from the substrate. These systems rely on a highly extensible adhesive strip that bonds strongly during use but releases when stretched, causing the adhesive layer to elongate and progressively debond from the surfaces. A central challenge in the design of stretch-release adhesives is therefore to maximize load-bearing capacity while minimizing the force required for removal. This study investigates the finite-deformation mechanics governing both load support and tape release in a hyperelastic stretch-release adhesive system, with particular focus on the 3M Command™ tape geometry. Explicit analytical expressions are derived for the energy release rate of interfacial cracks under both load-bearing and release conditions and are validated against <i>J</i>-integral evaluations from finite element simulations. The results show that the ratio of maximum supported load to release force scales linearly with the ratio of bonded length to adhesive thickness, which is typically very large. We also investigate geometry-driven alternating crack propagation between the backing and substrate interfaces, governing tape removal, by analytical solutions and simulations. Parametric studies of competing interfacial fracture toughnesses produce failure envelopes that provide a predictive framework for estimating release forces and unstable crack propagation in multilayer stretch-release adhesive systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149101188","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}
Soft MatterPub Date : 2026-10-06DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00855k
Bohdan Lev, Oleksandr Cherniak
{"title":"Light-induced non-uniform surface polarization evolution as an active matter motion mechanism.","authors":"Bohdan Lev, Oleksandr Cherniak","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00855k","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6sm00855k","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A new mechanism for micro-swimmer motion in an aquatic environment, which implies light-induced polarization perturbations as a cause for motion, is proposed. The mechanism assumes that natural light leads to an enhancement of the non-uniform polarization distribution at the micro-swimmer's surface and also to an enhancement of its surface deformations. The interaction of such non-uniform polarization with free charges in the environment and the mechanical interaction of surface deformations with media flows lead to directed micro-swimmer motion. The thermodynamic justification for this mechanism is based on the free energy functional minimization in terms of polarization. The obtained solutions of the non-uniform polarization distribution correspond to its translation motion along and the rotation around the micro-swimmer surface. The estimation of the velocity of micro-swimmer motion, which is based on the hydrodynamics of the active matter, corresponds to the experimentally observed values.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149101285","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}
Soft MatterPub Date : 2026-10-06DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00846a
Jun Yoshioka, Tasuku Sakikawa, Eiichi Oishi, Shinji Bono, Akitoshi Koreeda, Satoshi Konishi, Koji Fukao
{"title":"Self-organised formation of an edge-dislocation array and optical vortex generation by reentrant-type nematic liquid crystal.","authors":"Jun Yoshioka, Tasuku Sakikawa, Eiichi Oishi, Shinji Bono, Akitoshi Koreeda, Satoshi Konishi, Koji Fukao","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00846a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00846a","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Fork-shaped diffraction gratings generate optical vortices, <i>i.e.</i>, light fields with helical wavefronts. To fabricate such a grating, we focus here on the periodic deformation induced near the phase transition between the nematic and smectic A liquid-crystalline phases. Although the periodic structure typically appears over a temperature range of only ∼0.1 K, which is too narrow for practical use as a grating, we show that this range can be extended to several kelvins by using a reentrant-type nematic liquid crystal. Moreover, by introducing a sandwich cell with a step in the substrate, we successfully create edge dislocations in the periodic pattern owing to the mismatch in its period across the step. Upon illuminating a dislocation with laser light, optical vortices are observed in the first-order diffracted beams, whose intensity distributions strongly depend on the incident polarisation. The resulting dislocations thus function as polarisation-sensitive fork-shaped gratings.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149101317","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}
Soft MatterPub Date : 2026-10-05DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00711b
Piyush Garg, Marco Edoardo Rosti
{"title":"The ultimate state of elastic turbulence.","authors":"Piyush Garg, Marco Edoardo Rosti","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00711b","DOIUrl":"10.1039/d6sm00711b","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The asymptotic properties, with vanishing viscosity, of inertial turbulence in Newtonian fluids have been of intense scrutiny over the years. Much less is known about elastic turbulence - a distinct spatio-temporally chaotic state exhibited by viscoelastic fluids. In this work, using direct numerical simulations of turbulence in a triperiodic box, we show that elastic turbulence achieves an ultimate state with increasing polymer relaxation time, <i>i.e.</i>, the Deborah number, for two different constitutive models (Oldroyd-B and FENE-P). In the limiting state, various bulk quantities - the fluid dissipation, the polymeric energy transfer, as well as the elastic stresses - are shown to become independent of the polymer relaxation time scale, notwithstanding the microstructure deformation scales distinctly depending on the model.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149101408","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}
Soft MatterPub Date : 2026-10-05DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00693k
Tretya Ardyani, Masanobu Sagisaka, Sarah E Rogers, Suriani Abu Bakar, Endang Widjajanti Laksono, Muqoyyanah, Mario Leonardus, H P S Abdul Khalil, Ratno Nuryadi, Mohamad Hafiz Mamat, Azmi Mohamed
{"title":"Metal-based cationic and anionic surfactant ionic liquids determine the dispersion stability of reduced graphene oxide and its conductive nanocellulose paper performance.","authors":"Tretya Ardyani, Masanobu Sagisaka, Sarah E Rogers, Suriani Abu Bakar, Endang Widjajanti Laksono, Muqoyyanah, Mario Leonardus, H P S Abdul Khalil, Ratno Nuryadi, Mohamad Hafiz Mamat, Azmi Mohamed","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00693k","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00693k","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The properties and graphene compatibility of anionic and cationic surfactant ionic liquids containing a C12 hydrophobic chain are described. The cationic surfactant ionic liquids are similar to the commercial dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB) and dodecylethyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB), but with a modified hydrophilic moiety bearing an iron(III) chloride, denoted as DTAF (dodecyltrimethylammonium trichloromonobromoferrate) and DDAF (dodecylethyldimethylammonium trichloromonobromoferrate). The properties of this system are contrasted with the anionic type of surfactant and surfactant ionic liquids (SAILs) based on an imidazolium ion. Their efficiency in stabilizing a system consisting of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and nanofibrillated kenaf cellulose was characterized through four-point probe electrical conductivity measurements. Raman spectroscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were used to investigate the morphology and dispersion quality of RGO inside the cellulose matrix. The stability of the RGO dispersions was analyzed using zeta potential measurement, giving a value of |18-32| mV for the cationic moieties and |36-59| mV for the anionic ones. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) was used to study the aggregation behavior of the stabilizers in an aqueous system and the RGO dispersion. The results point to a more significant effect from the addition of π-conjugated imidazolium moiety (a 5-order-of-magnitude conductivity enhancement) than from the addition of a metal moiety (FeCl<sub>4</sub><sup>-</sup>) to the headgroup of the cationic compounds (a 3-order-of-magnitude enhancement).</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149101235","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}
Soft MatterPub Date : 2026-10-02DOI: 10.1039/d6sm00679e
Debraj Dutta, Urna Basu
{"title":"Collective ring formation in active matter.","authors":"Debraj Dutta, Urna Basu","doi":"10.1039/d6sm00679e","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d6sm00679e","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We study the formation of ring-like structures in interacting active particle systems in two dimensions. The emergent structure shows signatures of both spatial and orientational organization. The spatial organization is characterized by the radial distance of a tagged particle from the centroid of the assembly, while orientational organization is characterized by the radial alignment of its self-propulsion direction. We derive exact analytical expressions for the radial and polarization distributions for systems of active Brownian particles and run-and-tumble particles. While both models exhibit annular steady states, we show that their spatial and orientational organization differ qualitatively in the strongly active regime. A direct comparison of the two models reveals how the nature of the propulsion mechanism leads to the distinction in both the structure of the annulus and the statistics of particle orientations. Our results provide a unified analytical framework for characterizing emergent annular states in active matter and identify robust signatures that distinguish persistent active dynamics with continuous and discrete reorientation.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149101125","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}