December 2016 – Soft Matter Blog

Archive for December, 2016

Soft Matter Emerging Investigators issue now online

22 Dec 2016

Issue 1 of Volume 13 of Soft Matter is an Emerging Investigators special issue, highlighting the recent work of leading researchers in the field who are in the earlier stages of their careers as group leaders.

The collection showcases both experimental and theoretical work from around the globe, and features investigations across a wide diversity of soft materials, including polymers, liquid crystals, nanoparticles, foams, emulsions and biological matter.

Check out the Editorial by Executive Editor Neil Hammond.

A few articles from the themed issue are highlighted below

Drop morphologies on flexible fibers: influence of elastocapillary effects
Alban Sauret, François Boulogne, Katarzyna Somszor, Emilie Dressaire and Howard A. Stone

Dynamic dilution exponent in monodisperse entangled polymer solutions
T. Shahid, Q. Huang, F. Oosterlinck, C. Clasen and E. van Ruymbeke

Ion specificities of artificial macromolecules
Lvdan Liu, Ran Kou and Guangming Liu

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Biocompatible hydrogel focuses on lenses

20 Dec 2016

A bioinspired smart material that swells and contracts could be used to make optical lenses

Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
The researchers designed a flexible lens using their biocompatible hydrogel

Scientists in China have designed a biocompatible hydrogel based on the bilayer structure of plant organs. The material, which can swell and contract in response to pH changes, could be used to make optical lenses.

Plant organs like pine cones and wheat awns have inspired scientists to design smart materials that can undergo 3D shape transformations in response to external triggers, such as pH changes. However these materials are often made from synthetic polymers, which can limit their biocompatibility.

Read the full story by Suzanne Howson in Chemistry World.

This article is free to access until 25 January 2016.

J Duan et al., Soft Matter, 2017. DOI: 10.1039/C6SM02089E

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Bouncing Leidenfrost droplets seem to defy gravity

09 Dec 2016

Scientists uncover why charged droplets on a hot surface bounce progressively higher.

Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
Dynamics of an ethanol Leidenfrost droplet in an electric field. The total time covered by (b) and (c) is about 9 seconds

Researchers from the Netherlands and China have discovered that they can make small droplets dribble on a hot surface like a bouncing ball by applying an electric field. Changes in the droplet’s mass and charge over time make it bounce progressively higher, seemingly defying gravitational attraction.

Inspired by a video showing droplets orbiting a charged knitting needle at the International Space Station, Sander Wildeman from the University of Twente and Chao Sun from Tsinghua University wanted to investigate how charged droplets behave in a strong electric field. ‘Gravity is a problem on Earth, and we wanted the droplets to move without friction as they do in space,’ explains Wildeman. This is why they decided to do their investigation on Leidenfrost droplets, which move with very little friction.

Read the full story by Liisa Niitsoo in Chemistry World.

This article is free to access until 16 January 2016.

Sander Wildeman and Chao Sun, Soft Matter, 2016. DOI: 10.1039/C6SM01506A

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Soft Matter Blog

Archive for December, 2016

Soft Matter Emerging Investigators issue now online

Biocompatible hydrogel focuses on lenses

Bouncing Leidenfrost droplets seem to defy gravity

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