Soft Matter Blog

Phase diagrams of rod-coil block copolymers using wormlike chain SCFT were constructed by scientists at Fudan University, China, and McMaster University, Canada, to explore the effects of interplay between microphase separation and orientational interaction on microstructures.

The team led by Ping Tang found that the stability of the monolayer and bilayer smectic phases is associated with the competition between interfacial energy and coil-stretching entropy, which strongly depends on the interplay between orientational interaction and microphase separation and the topological disparity between the semiflexible and coil blocks.

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Molecular fluctuations in a liquid crystalline polyrotaxane have been studied by Japanese scientists. The team from The University of Tokyo and Shibaura Institute of Technology used dielectric spectroscopy to investigate a polyrotaxane (CB5PR) consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) and α-cyclodextrins chemically modified with mesogenic cyanobiphenyl groups.

Read the full article for free here: Aoi Inomata, Masatoshi Kidowaki, Yasuhiro Sakai, Hideaki Yokoyama and Kohzo Ito, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0SM00930J

A strategy for inducing two-dimensional crystallization of charged nanoparticles on oppositely charged fluid interfaces has been developed by US scientists.

The team led by Masafumi Fukuto and Lin Yang at Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA, used in situ X-ray scattering measurements at the liquid–vapor interface to investigate the assembly of cowpea mosaic virus on positively charged lipid monolayers.

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Sumit Kewalramani, Suntao Wang, Yuan Lin, Huong Giang Nguyen, Qian Wang, Masafumi Fukuto and Lin Yang, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI:10.1039/C0SM00956C

A photonic crystal material based on a gelated colloidal crystalline array has been made by a team of Chinese scientists.

The gelated colloidal crystalline array is easy to make and shape and efficiently diffracts visible light. The diffraction wavelength can be tuned anywhere within the visible spectrum simply by varying the concentration of the crystalline colloidal array or by stretching the material. This change could be easily seen by the naked eye they claim.

The team led by Yihua Zhu at the University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China, made the gelated colloidal crystalline array from PVA hydrogel/colloidal crystalline array composites using an organic solvent. These physically cross-linked PVA gels can be dissolved and rebuilt as the temperature is cycled.

Read the full article for free here:  Cheng Chen, Yihua Zhu, Hua Bao, Peng Zhao, Hongliang Jiang, Liming Peng, Xiaoling Yang and Chunzhong Li, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI:10.1039/C0SM00923G

Colloidal spheres with well defined cavities have been fabricated in large quantities from monodisperse emulsions.

In their paper published in Soft Matter, Stefano Sacanna and colleagues at New York University, USA, and Utrecht University, The Netherlands, describe the formation mechanism of “reactive” silicon oil droplets that deform to reproducible shapes via a polymerization-induced buckling instability. The team say that owing to their unique shape, the resulting particles can be successfully used as colloidal building blocks in the assembly of composite clusters via “lock-and-key” interactions.

Why not read the full article here: Stefano Sacanna, William T. M. Irvine, Laura Rossi and David J. Pine, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI:10.1039/C0SM01125H

Scientist have studied the self-assembly of a binary mixture of polycaprolactone-polyethylene oxide block copolymers in solution. The different polymers form vesicles and spherical micelles in water and self-assembly is triggered by changing the solvent from THF to water. The team led by Peter Schuetz, Unilever, UK, also used Self-Consistent Field Theory based modelling to give further insights into the forces driving self assembly.

The team say that both experiment and theory demonstrate that controlled blending of block copolymers is an effective design parameter for controlling the morphology of the self-assembled structures in block copolymer solutions. This allows a much richer range of nano-morphologies than is possible with single, monomodal block copolymer solutions, they claim.

Peter Schuetz, Martin J. Greenall, Julian Bent, Steve Furzeland, Derek Atkins, Michael F. Butler, Tom C. B. McLeish and D. Martin A. Buzza, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0SM00938E

The elastic response of active biopolymer networks is determined not only by molecular motors but also by the density and stiffness of crosslinking proteins say US Scientists.

Peng Chen and Vivek B. Shenoy from Brown University, USA, studied the elastic response of actin networks with both compliant and rigid crosslinks by modeling molecular motors as force dipoles.

Fancy knowing more? Read the full article for free here: Peng Chen and Vivek B. Shenoy, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI:10.1039/C0SM00908C