Soft Matter最新文献

{"title":"Synergistic effects of azobenzene and thiourea backbones in multiresponsive copolymers for sensing and adhesive technologies†","authors":"Tse-Yu Lo, Mei-Li Li, Chia-Wei Chang, Tsung-Hung Tsai, Heng-Hsuan Su, Chun-Chi Chang, Yen-Shen Hsu, Huan-Wei Lin and Jiun-Tai Chen","doi":"10.1039/D4SM01536C","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4SM01536C","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Stimuli-responsive polymers have garnered significant attention for their ability to adapt to environmental changes, offering applications in sensing, smart coatings, and adaptive devices. However, challenges remain in developing multifunctional polymers that combine dynamic responsiveness with robust mechanical properties. In this study, we design and synthesize multifunctional azobenzene-based copolymers, poly(thiourea triethylene glycol)-<em>co</em>-azobenzene (PTUEG<small>₃</small>-<em>co</em>-Azo) copolymers, through a controlled polycondensation process to address these limitations. The flexible PTUEG<small>₃</small> backbone, with its strong hydrogen-bonding networks, is combined with azobenzene moieties to impart thermal isomerization, acid–base responsiveness, and enhanced adhesion performance. The azobenzene groups exhibited thermally induced <em>cis</em>-to-<em>trans</em> isomerization, leading to structural reorganization, increased molecular packing, and elevated glass transition temperatures (<em>T</em><small>_g</small>). Additionally, the azobenzene moieties demonstrated reversible acid–base responsiveness, undergoing distinct and repeatable color changes upon protonation and deprotonation. By balancing the flexibility of the PTUEG<small>₃</small> backbone with the rigidity of azobenzene groups, PTUEG<small>₃</small>-<em>co</em>-Azo copolymers achieved strong adhesion performance and tunable dynamic properties. The 4 : 1 PTUEG<small>₃</small>-<em>co</em>-Azo composition demonstrated superior adhesive strength, attributed to the synergistic effects of hydrogen bonding and azobenzene-induced reorganization under thermal activation. These results present PTUEG<small>₃</small>-<em>co</em>-Azo as a versatile material, bridging the gap between dynamic responsiveness and mechanical robustness, with potential applications in smart sensing, adhesives, and functional coatings.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" 14","pages":" 2704-2715"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143661679","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":"Towards electrospray-assisted production of lipid-based synthetic cell assemblies†","authors":"Pim Vink, Lawrence W. Honaker and Siddharth Deshpande","doi":"10.1039/D4SM01284D","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4SM01284D","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Lipid-based vesicles are widely used, minimalistic model containers for <em>in vitro</em> reconstitution of biological systems and engineering synthetic cells. These containers provide a micro-chassis to encapsulate biomolecules and study biochemical interactions. Liposomes are often the most sought-after vesicles owing to their cell-mimicking nature, and numerous bulk and on-chip methods exist for their production. However, exploring the scope of synthetic containers, both in terms of the alternative lipid assemblies as well as newer production methods is useful for expanding the toolbox for synthetic biology. In this paper, we report the development of an electrospray-based technique, which we term “ATPS-templated lipid assemblies <em>via</em> electrofusion of SUVs” (ATLAES), to form lipid-based vesicles. Using an aqueous two-phase system (ATPS), free of organic solvents, we demonstrate efficient formation of microscopic vesicles stabilized <em>via</em> interfacial lipid assembly. Interestingly, the formed vesicles exhibit a nebulous and disordered, but highly stable coating of lipids, and tend to form interconnected vesicle populations. Remarkably, the lipid assemblies can continue to rearrange and reconfigure over time, leading to spherical vesicles with ultra-thin and smooth lipid coating, suggestive of liposomes. Our work provides a new avenue, in the form of electrospray, to form various lipid-based assemblies using all-aqueous systems and we believe this platform can be further exploited for high-throughput vesicle production and higher-order assemblies.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" 16","pages":" 2977-2985"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11878373/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143539623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The pendant drop experiment for aggregates of cohesive granular particles†","authors":"Yasaman Heshmatzadeh, Jean-Christophe Ono-dit-Biot and Kari Dalnoki-Veress","doi":"10.1039/D4SM01424C","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4SM01424C","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The pendant drop experiment can be used to study the interfacial tension of a liquid. Here we perform a similar experiment for a granular system. When a dense aggregate of cohesive particles extrudes from an orifice, a cluster of particles detaches, similar to the detachment of a liquid drop. We investigate the volume of the clusters formed from close-packed cohesive oil droplets in an aqueous solution. Our findings reveal that the volume of the clusters depends on the size of the orifice as well as the cohesion strength. Interestingly, we observe that the droplet size does not significantly impact the average cluster volume. We establish a simple scaling law that governs the size of a granular cluster which differs from that of a classic pendant drop. We propose that the key difference between continuum and granular systems is the constraints on rearrangements within the cohesive particles that prevent the clusters from adopting a minimal surface structure, as is the case for a classic pendant drop.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" 17","pages":" 3190-3196"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/sm/d4sm01424c?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143622842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Preparation of hybrid β-chitosan – squid pen protein hydrogel beads by ionic liquid regeneration for adsorption of copper(ii) and zinc(ii) from wastewater†","authors":"Liyan Moralez, Pedro Nakasu and Jason Hallett","doi":"10.1039/D4SM01300J","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4SM01300J","url":null,"abstract":"<p >This study explores the use of squid pen protein to enhance the chemical stability and heavy metal ion (Cu<small>²⁺</small> and Zn<small>²⁺</small>) affinity of β-chitosan. Hydrogel beads with enhanced porosity and scalability were prepared using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, ([BMIM][OAc]), which simultaneously functionalized β-chitosan by decreasing its crystallinity and enhancing binding site access, as indicated by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, which revealed intensification of functional group expression. Notably, this functionalization compensated for the effects of glutaraldehyde crosslinking. However, initial experiments noted a reduction in adsorption capacity as the squid pen protein content increased, with Cu<small>²⁺</small> and Zn<small>²⁺</small> adsorption being particularly inhibited at lower pH levels due to protonation. Subsequent batch adsorption studies identified optimal conditions for Cu<small>²⁺</small> and Zn<small>²⁺</small> uptake, with 24-hours being adequate to appraoch equilibrium, and revealed that adsorption followed pseudo-second-order kinetics, indicative of chemisorption. Furthermore, analysis of adsorption kinetics by intraparticle diffusion revealed that mass transfer was rate-limiting, with Cu<small>²⁺</small> and Zn<small>²⁺</small> transport being a multi-step process involving successive and slower phases controlled by external diffusion, intraparticle diffusion and equilibrium, respectively. Lastly, equilibrium studies revealed that the adsorption of Cu<small>²⁺</small> and Zn<small>²⁺</small> corresponded with the Langmuir model, suggesting monolayer coverage with maximum adsorption capacities of 67.4 mg g<small>⁻¹</small> for Cu<small>²⁺</small> and 24.1 mg g<small>⁻¹</small> for Zn<small>²⁺</small>. Overall, the potential of squid pen protein as an economical filler for β-chitosan-based adsorbents was validated alongside the efficiency of using [BMIM][OAc] for the non-toxic functionalization of β-chitosan. Support of green chemistry principles was evidenced by a high atom economy and low environmental impact, indicating a sustainable method for preparing effective biosorbents.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" 13","pages":" 2480-2492"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/sm/d4sm01300j?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143555321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fabrication of COC micromodels with wettability heterogeneities: method and influence on fluid transport†","authors":"Camille Brigodiot, Elliot Speirs, Cédric Guyon, Michaël Tatoulian and Nicolas Pannacci","doi":"10.1039/D4SM01461H","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4SM01461H","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Wettability plays a key role in multiphase fluid flow through porous media, significantly influencing geological processes such as CO<small>₂</small> sequestration, groundwater remediation, or oil recovery. Micromodels, <em>i.e.</em> microfluidic porous media, have advanced the study of fluid flows in porous media by enabling direct visualisation of these processes. However, the influence of wettability heterogeneities on fluid flows in porous media remains underexplored in the literature, with studies focusing primarily on homogeneous wettabilities. In this study, we propose a complete method to manufacture micromodels with controllable, heterogeneous wettabilities. This work is at the crossroads of three different fields: microfabrication, surface treatment and fluid transport in porous media. The micromodels are made from a transparent polymer, cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), using hot-embossing. A plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process with a tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) precursor is then used locally to reduce the COC's wettability. The durability, degree, and localisation of the deposition are quantitatively assessed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), IR spectroscopy, and contact angle measurements. Our fabrication method successfully produced mixed-wet micromodels with easily controllable wettability patterns. Additionally, our study also presents a qualitative analysis of the impact of wettability heterogeneities on multiphase flows for oil, water, and water-in-oil emulsion injections. The location of the treated surface areas is shown to strongly impact emulsion stability and transport.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" 13","pages":" 2509-2517"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/sm/d4sm01461h?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143565592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Eyring theory for plasticity in amorphous polymers violates Curie's principle","authors":"Thomas C. Merlette, Elian Masnada, Paul Sotta and Didier R. Long","doi":"10.1039/D4SM00894D","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4SM00894D","url":null,"abstract":"<p >In 1936, Eyring introduced a model for plastic flow which still forms the bedrock of practically all studies on plasticity of glassy polymers. Though the concept of activated process he introduced is fundamentally relevant, we argue here that under no circumstances can the Eyring model be correct as it violates Curie's principle, which is a basic physical requirement of statistical mechanics. An alternative model was proposed by [Long <em>et al.</em>, <em>Phys. Rev. Mater.</em>, 2018, <strong>2</strong>, 105601] to describe the acceleration of the dynamics by an applied stress, in which the elastic energy stored at the length scale of dynamical heterogeneities <em>ξ</em> ≈ 3 – 5 nm reduces the free energy barriers for relaxation. While this model still considers α-relaxation as an activated process, as did Eyring, it fully complies with Curie's principle. It is based on a Landau expansion of the free energy barriers as a function of the applied stress. We argue that, due to the large length scale involved in the α-relaxation, only the leading quadratic order term should be retained, as higher order terms are negligible. We discuss a few recent experiments which confirm these features. This model opens the way to set glassy polymers plasticity into the realm of out-of-equilibrium statistical physics and condensed matter physics, which we argue is the appropriate framework for considering the physics of glass transition and mechanical properties of glassy polymers.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" 13","pages":" 2502-2508"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143565591","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":"Biomimetic swarm of active particles with coupled passive-active interactions.","authors":"Amir Nourhani","doi":"10.1039/d4sm01298d","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d4sm01298d","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We study the universal behavior of a class of active colloids whose design is inspired by the collective dynamics of natural systems such as schools of fish and flocks of birds. These colloids, with off-center repulsive interaction sites, self-organize into polar swarms exhibiting long-range order and directional motion without significant hydrodynamic interactions. Our simulations show that the system transitions from motile perfect crystals to solid-like, liquid-like, and gas-like states depending on noise levels, repulsive interaction strength, and particle density. By analyzing swarm polarity and hexatic bond order parameters, we demonstrate that effective volume fractions based on force-range and torque-range interactions explain the system's universal behavior. This work lays a groundwork for biomimetic applications utilizing the cooperative polar dynamics of active colloids.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143539582","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":"In situ error analysis in contact angle goniometry†","authors":"Heikki A. Nurmi, Gentrit Zenuni, Sakari Lepikko, Reetta Saine, Maja Vuckovac and Robin H. A. Ras","doi":"10.1039/D4SM01509F","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4SM01509F","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Contact angle goniometry is a valuable tool for characterising surface wetting properties in various application areas such as petrochemistry, coatings, and medicine. The accuracy of goniometer measurements is often unknown and underappreciated, yet the errors can be large enough to affect or invalidate the interpretation of measurement. In addition, goniometer measurement errors are typically estimated after the measurement by the variance of the measured data, without considering the instrumental uncertainties in the analysis or in the setup. Here, we present a method for estimating these intrinsic measurement errors for each frame <em>in situ</em> and validate it against a commercial contact angle goniometer. We evaluate the method using synthetic images of a droplet with set contact angles. Our results highlight the need for <em>in situ</em> error estimates in goniometer measurements, as the errors can be larger than generally estimated ones. The presented <em>in situ</em> error estimation method could be implemented using contact angle goniometer software to aid the user during the tuning of the instrument and analysis of the contact angle data.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" 13","pages":" 2422-2429"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/sm/d4sm01509f?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143522211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Computer vision for high-throughput analysis of pickering emulsions†","authors":"Kieran D. Richards, Ella Comish and Rachel C Evans","doi":"10.1039/D4SM01252F","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4SM01252F","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The quanitative analysis of solid-particle stabilized emulsions, known as Pickering emulsions, is crucial for their application in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. However, size analysis of these emulsion droplets, with diameters ranging from 5 to 500 μm, is challenging due to their non-uniform spatial and polydisperse size-distribution. Here, we investigate the application of the circle-Hough transform (CHT), a well-established computer-vision technique characterised by its ability to detect circular features in noisy images, for the seldom explored quantitative assessment of droplet size from optical microscopy images. This is particularly relevant to images where emulsions are captured in a single 2D focal plane. To implement the CHT with optical images, we have developed an open-source software application (“Hough-Scan”), which incorporates a user-friendly graphical interface for ease of use, and a tiling algorithm allowing localised regions of circles to be processed in parallel and improving computational efficiency. Using Hough-Scan, we demonstrate that the CHT has superior precision, recall and accuracy for the identification of Pickering emulsion droplets and determination of their size, compared to both manual identification and established computer vision methods. Our study demonstrates that CHT implementation using Hough-Scan can significantly increase the ease of image analysis for a diverse range of Pickering emulsion systems of varying spatial and size distribution, as well as visual artefacts common to example microscopy images.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" 12","pages":" 2339-2348"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/sm/d4sm01252f?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143522122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ultra-slow self-similar coarsening of physical fibrillar gels formed by semiflexible polymers†","authors":"Martin Kröger, Clarisse Luap and Patrick Ilg","doi":"10.1039/D4SM01479K","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4SM01479K","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Biopolymers tend to form fibrils that self-assemble into open network structures. While permanently crosslinked flexible polymers are relatively well understood, structure–property relationships of open networks and pseudo-gels formed by bundles of biopolymers are still controversial. Here we employ a generic coarse-grained bead-spring chain model incorporating semiflexibility and cohesive nonbonded interactions, that forms physical instead of chemical crosslinks. For flexible chains, the cohesive forces lead to the formation of a droplet phase while, at the same concentration, stiffer chains form bundles that self-assemble into percolated networks. From comprehensive molecular dynamics simulations we find that the reversible crosslinks allow for permanent relaxation processes. However, the associated reorganization of the filamentous network is severely hindered, leading to aging of its topology. Based on morphometric analyses, the ultra-slow coarsening in these systems is proven to be self-similar, which implies a number of scaling relations between structural quantities as the networks age. The percolated structures are characterized by different dynamic regimes of slow, anomalous diffusion with highly non-Gaussian displacements. Relaxation dynamics is found to become extremely slow already on moderate length scales and further slowing down as coarsening proceeds. Using a minimal model supported by observations on filament rupture and rearrangement, our study helps to shed light on various interrelated structural and dynamical aspects of coarsening nonergodic systems relevant for fibrous networks, pseudo-gels, and physical fibrillar gels.</p>","PeriodicalId":103,"journal":{"name":"Soft Matter","volume":" 15","pages":" 2803-2825"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/sm/d4sm01479k?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143603260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}