Self-assembly of cellulose nanofibrils by genetically engineered fusion proteins. The team led by Markus Ben Linder describe how genetic engineering is used to design proteins that have “smart” functionalities that allow directed self-assembly of cellulose nanofibrils for the control of nanostructures in soft materials.
Nucleation of colloidal crystals on configurable seed structures. This hot paper shows the topology of the initial hard sphere nucleus determines the morphology of the crystal. The team led by A. van Blaaderen claim that the reported results explain the complex crystal morphologies observed in experiments on hard spheres.
Molecular dynamics and biaxiality of nematic polymers and elastomers. In this paper the authors study the origins of phase biaxiality in nematic polymers and elastomers to gain insight into the relation of molecular dynamics and biaxiality. The team report that broad biaxial nematic phases were found for liquid crystalline polymers in all conventional attachment geometries.
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