Frustration and packing in curved-filament assemblies: from isometric to isomorphic bundles
Gregory M. Grason
Knotting and metric scaling properties of DNA confined in nano-channels: a Monte Carlo study
Cristian Micheletti and Enzo Orlandini
Cylindrical crystalline-core micelles: pushing the limits of solution self-assembly
Joachim Schmelz, Felix H. Schacher and Holger Schmalz
Kinetics of multicompartment micelle formation by self-assembly of ABC miktoarm star terpolymer in dilute solution
Long Wang, Rui Xu, Zilu Wang and Xuehao He
A novel particle tracking method with individual particle size measurement and its application to ordering in glassy hard sphere colloids
Mathieu Leocmach and Hajime Tanaka
The buckling and invagination process during consolidation of colloidal droplets
F. Boulogne, F. Giorgiutti-Dauphiné and L. Pauchard
Understanding the health, safety and nutritive aspects of foods is becoming increasing important, as evidence builds to suggest that diet plays a part in some chronic illnesses. As a part of this, the effective nutritive intake may differ from the food content, for example a structure containing a micronutrient is not broken down during digestion. A popular model food system is an emulsion, a liquid-liquid dispersion.
In this hot paper, Marze and Choimet compare the in vitro digestion of emulsions with different formulations using various techniques. They use classical physicochemical methods to build on their previous study (DOI: 10.1039/c2sm26334c) on diffusion methods to check the roles of other factors other than the effect of the triglyceride on digestion. The authors describe mass transfer models that identify the mechanistic paramenters and help the data interpretation. All the techniques showed that the type of triglyceride is the dominant parameter in explaining the emulsion digestion.
In vitro digestion of emulsions: mechanistic and experimental models
Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 10982. DOI: 10.1039/c2sm26336j. (free to read for a short time)
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Liquid crystals (LCs) can form polygonal cylinder arrays through self-assembly of polyphilic molecules of a rod-like core, two polar end groups and flexible lipophilic lateral chains. Although LC phases are highly dynamic fluid structures, they have the ability to form 2D lattices over large areas because of the self-healing ability and self-assembling. Understanding these process allows for the practical applications of these complex LC phases in organising π-conjugated aromatic in functional organic emitting devices.
In this hot paper, Cheng, Tschierske and co-workers report the synthesis of a series of new 5,5′-diphenyl-2,2′-dithiophene based bolaamphiphiles and their self-assembling into LC honeycombs. The authors show a transition from triangular/rhombic cylinders to a square honeycomb goes through a disordered isotropic state upon reaching a critical lateral chain length of the dithiophene.
Dithiophene based X-shaped bolaamphiphiles: liquid crystals with single wall honeycombs and geometric frustration
Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 10921. DOI: 10.1039/c2sm26575c (free to read for a short time)
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The in vitro application of the self-organisation process of ‘active self-organisation (AcSO)’, in which a steady state non-equilibrium structure is maintained by a constant supply of energy, is attracting more and more attention in the production of complex structures on various scales. In this hot paper, featured on the front cover of issue 42 of Soft Matter, Kakugo, Gong et al. report the assembly process of microtubules at an air-buffer interface. Using the AcSO method in the presence of ATP resulted in ring-shaped structures. The team introduce an air–buffer interface control system, which combined with the inert chamber system, shows direct in situ observation of the assembly processes.
Formation of ring-shaped assembly of microtubules with a narrow size distribution at an air–buffer interface
Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 10863. DOI: 10.1039/c2sm26441b (free to read for a short time)
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This Highlight by Silvia Corezzi and colleagues reviews a series of recent numerical studies that evidence the analogies between reversible and irreversible gelation in small functionality particles. These studies also investigate the crossover from chemically controlled to diffusion-controlled aggregation. The authors suggest that these results will be a useful guide for the interpretation of the kinetic in real systems. They use an example of measuring the extent of reaction in epoxy-resin systems to show this.
Chemical and physical aggregation of small-functionality particles
Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 11207. DOI: 10.1039/c2sm26112j (free to read for a short time)
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Stimuli-responsive materials have received much attention recently because of their ability to switch their physical and chemical properties in response to external environmental conditions such as irritation with light, temperature or pH. Layer-by-layer multilayer films have been studied because they can be quite sensitive to external stimuli such as pH, temperature and ionic strength. Most studies have focussed on the formation of multilayer films on supporting porous templates or deposition with micro-sized pores. Nano-sized cylindrical porous membranes with tunable pore diameters by external stimuli are important in understanding molecular translocation through membranes by stimuli-responsive porous membranes.
In this hot paper, Char and colleagues from Seoul National University deposited pH sensitive multilayer films on the sidewalls of pores with diameter sub-100 nm. The authors carefully control the molecular weight of the polyelectrolytes during the deposition and use multivalent salts. It is suggested that this approach can be applied to stimuli-driven gating devices that mimic living membranes.
Layer-by-layer assembled stimuli-responsive nanoporous membranes
Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 10271. DOI: 10.1039/c2sm26562a (free to read for a short time)
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Ionic liquid crystals (ILCs) are closely related to ionic liquids. They have one key different feature compared to ionic liquids in that they consist of at least one long alkyl chain. This also differentiates them from liquid crystals where the alkyl chains are usually short and must contain a rigid core. The applications of ILCs tend to exploit their anisotropic ion conductivity, and they have been used as ordered reaction media or templates for the synthesis of mesoporous materials. A clear understanding of the many molecular factors influencing the ionic mesophases from experimental efforts is lacking.
In this hot paper, Saielli uses molecular dynamics stimulations (coarse-grained force fields) to give a semi-quantitative description of the mesomorphic behaviour of 1-hexadecyl-3-methylimidazolium nitrate. The author shows that coarse-grained force fields can be tuned to better reproduce the thermal range of stability of the mesophase.
MD simulation of the mesomorphic behaviour of 1-hexadecyl-3-methylimidazolium nitrate: assessment of the performance of a coarse-grained force field
Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 10279. DOI: 10.1039/c2sm26376a (free to read for a short time)
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