Soft Matter Blog

Professor Lixin Wu is currently the outstanding Tang Auching Professor in College of Chemistry at Jilin University and a PI of the State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials of China. He is also a member of Colloids and Interface Chemistry Division of the Chinese Chemistry Society. His research interests mainly focus on the fabrication and structure studies of supramolecular hybrid assemblies comprising of inorganic nanoclusters and organic amphiphiles. By regulating non-covalent interactions and incorporating functional units, his group would like to develop flexible framework structures and those composites toward precisely nano colloid-separation, near-infrared photothermal transformation, and environment friendly catalytic and bio-applicable materials.

Professor Wu has given his thoughts on the future of the soft matter field and the role of Soft Matter:

Soft Matter deals with interdisciplinary areas relevant to surface/interface, colloids, assemblies and behaviors, and polymers. In the present stage, the boundary among the traditional areas is getting ambiguous, which makes those clear topics in soft matter become extended greatly. More importantly, the extension of the originally focused fields generates new challenges in theory and applied materials. In this context, the soft matter field will go in two directions which are unambiguous. One is various applied materials based on soft matter concept and the other is the matched theory in searching and understanding for such kinds of materials. 

Read Professor Wu’s recent Soft Matter articles

Synergistically enhanced photothermal transition of a polyoxometalate/peptide assembly improved the antibiofilm and antibacterial activities
Yu Wang, Gang Chen, Rongrong Liu, Xuexun Fang, Feu Li, Lixin Wu and Yuqing Wu
Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 2951-2958

Recent advances on porous interfaces for biomedical applications
Jing Liang, Bao Li and Lixin Wu
Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 7231-7245

Professor Wu’s favourite recent Soft Matter articles

Professor Wu has selected some recent publications in Soft Matter that they found particularly interesting or insightful. These articles are all free to read until 31 August 2023.

Progress in the self-assembly of organic/inorganic polyhedral oligomeric silesquioxane (POSS) hybrids
Mohamed Gamal Mohamed and Shiao-Wei Kuo
Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 5535-5561

Membrane mixing and dynamics in hybrid POPC/poly(1,2-butadiene-block-ethylene oxide) (PBd-b-PEO) lipid/block co-polymer giant vesicles
Rashmi Seneviratne, Rosa Catania, Michael Rappolt, Lars J. C. Leuken and Paul A. Beales
Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 1294-1301

Polypyrrole and polyaniline nanocomposites with high photothermal conversion efficiency
Lorena Ruiz-Pérez, Loris Rizzello, Jinping Wang, Nan Li, Giuseppe Battaglia and Yiwen Pei
Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 4569-4573

Recent progress in the science of complex coacervation
Charles E. Sing and Sarah L. Perry
Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 2885-2914

A review on recent advances in polymer and peptide hydrogels
Sanjoy Mondal, Sujoy Das and Arun K. Nandi
Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 1404-1454

Fabrication of novel MXene (Ti3C2)/polyacrylamide nanocomposite hydrogels with enhanced mechanical and drug release properties
Peng Zhang, Xiu-Jie Yang, Peng Li, Yingyuan Zhao and Qingshan Jason Niu
Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 162-169

Dynamic surface-assisted assembly behaviours mediated by external stimuli
Xuan Peng, Fengying Zhao, Yang Peng, Jing Li and Qingdao Zeng
Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 54-63

Facile preparation of self-assembled hydrogels constructed from poly-cyclodextrin and poly-adamantane as highly selective adsorbents for wastewater treatment
Nan Hou, Ran Wang, Rui Geng, Fan Wang, Tifeng Jiao, Lexin Zhang, Jingxin Zhou, Zhenhua Bai and Qiuming Peng
Soft Matter, 2019, 15, 6097-6106

All these articles are currently FREE to read until 31 August 2023!

Professor Roberto Cerbino is a Professor of Experimental Soft Matter Physics at the University of Vienna, Austria. Before joining in 2021, he held a tenure for 14 years at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Milan, Italy. Roberto’s research encompasses the structure, dynamics, rheology, and instabilities of active and passive complex fluids, with a particular emphasis on colloidal and cellular collectives. He is credited with inventing Differential Dynamic Microscopy (DDM), a technique that utilizes optical microscopy to extract multi-scale activity in complex fluids and biological systems. In addition to DDM, he employs a range of cutting-edge optical techniques and image analysis methods to gain in-depth insights into the behaviour of soft materials.

Professor Cerbino has also given his insight and thoughts on the future of the soft matter field and the role of Soft Matter:

At a time when sustainability is of utmost importance, scientists from all disciplines are intensifying their efforts to preserve our planet and its invaluable resources. A significant part of this global dialogue revolves around soft matter, encompassing a broad range of materials present in our daily lives. Taking action toward the biocompatible, sustainable, and eco-friendly production, use, and disposal of soft materials, such as developing biodegradable alternatives to conventional plastics or designing energy-efficient processes for the production of detergents, paints, and coatings, is essential for creating a better future. Facing all these challenges requires merging knowledge from different disciplines in an endeavor well-suited to the collaborative spirit inherent in the community of soft matter scientists.

Along a similar line of thought, soft matter science also offers a unique interdisciplinary lens to unravel biological systems. These insights range from the microscopic biomechanics and dynamics of cell membranes, DNA, and proteins, to larger-scale phenomena such as the behaviors of cytoskeletal filaments, the mechanics of tissues, and the flow of blood. Looking ahead, I expect that the role of soft matter in understanding these and numerous other biological systems will only gain importance. This could also involve developing new therapeutic approaches based on soft matter principles for targeted drug delivery or for designing biomimetic materials to be used in regenerative medicine. Therefore, continued interdisciplinary research and collaboration in the field of soft matter science will be essential for future breakthroughs in biology and medicine.

Finally – and strongly influenced by my own approach to soft matter science – I view the creation of innovative methods and technologies as vital in pushing the boundaries of what is possible and attainable, particularly in terms of accessible spatial and temporal scales. In this area, too, the continuous discussion between different disciplines remains highly essential.

As a hub for these types of collaborative endeavors, Soft Matter has the potential to lead the way, being an established, reliable, and powerful platform for dialogue, research dissemination, and increased visibility of interdisciplinary research. As an Associate Editor, I’m fully committed to using my role effectively to help navigate us toward these exciting opportunities.

Read Professor Cerbino’s recent Soft Matter articles

Deformation profiles and microscopic dynamics of complex fluids during oscillatory shear experiments
Paolo Edera, Matteo Brizioli, Giuliano Zanchetta, George Petekidis, Fabio Giavazzi and Roberto Cerbino
Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 8553-8566

Disentangling collective motion and local rearrangements in 2D and 3D cell assemblies
Roberto Cerbino, Stefano Villa, Andrea Palamidessi, Emanuela Frittoli, Giorgio Scita and Fabio Giavazzi
Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 3550-3559

Professor Cerbino’s favourite recent Soft Matter articles

Professor Cerbino and Professor Wu have selected some recent publications in Soft Matter that they has found particularly interesting or insightful. These articles are all free to read until 31 August 2023.

Physics of smart active matter: integrating active matter and control to gain insights into living systems
Herbert Levine and Daniel I. Goldman
Soft Matter, 2023, 19, 4204-4207

Non-linear properties and yielding of enzymatic milk gels
Julien Bauland, Mathieu Leocmach, Marie-Hélène Famelart and Thomas Croguennec
Soft Matter, 2023, 19, 3562-3569

Green, tough and highly efficient flame-retardant rigid polyurethane foam enables by double network hydrogel coatings

Yubin Huang, Jinming Zhou, Ping Sun, Lei Zhang, Xiaodong Qian, Saihua Jiang and Congling Shi
Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 10555-10565

All these articles are currently FREE to read until 31 August 2023!

Professor Guruswamy (Guru) Kumaraswamy is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. Guru’s research interests are in the area of structure-property relations in polymers and nanocomposites,  waste valorization, and sustainable materials. Guru is primarily an experimentalist and his group uses tools such as rheology and small angle X-ray and neutron scattering to probe materials microstructure. Read more on his group webpage. You can follow him on Twitter @GuruKumaraswamy. He is looking forward to welcoming submissions, particularly in the areas of polymers, colloids, surfaces and interfaces.

He has given his insight and thoughts on the future of the soft materials field:

“Soft materials are likely to become even more pervasive in our experience – from the humble flexible packaging that increases the shelf life of foods, to highly engineered lipid nanoparticles that envelop mRNA. With increasing usage, comes great responsibility, to ensure that we do not overwhelm the environment. Therefore, I anticipate that our community will emphasize research that optimizes use, and increased functionality of soft materials. I hope to see this emphasis reflected in the articles published by Soft Matter. Circular use of soft materials, sustainability, recycling and upcycling will be the defining topics for materials research in our times, and this should be reflected in the articles featured in Soft Matter.”

Read Professor Kumaraswamy’s Soft Matter articles

Colloidal assembly by directional ice templating
Bipul Biswas, Mayank Misra, Anil Singh Bisht, Sanat K. Kumar and Guruswamy Kumaraswamy
Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 4098-4108

On the sensitivity of alginate rheology to composition
Karthika Suresh, Marleen Häring, Guruswamy Kumaraswamy and David Díaz Díaz
Soft Matter, 2019, 15, 159-165

Aqueous dispersions of lipid nanoparticles wet hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces
Manoj Kumar, Mayuresh A. Kulkarni, Narendiran G. Chembu, Arun Banpurkar and Guruswamy Kumaraswamy
Soft Matter, 2018, 14, 205-215

Capillary uptake in microporous compressible sponges
Soumyajyoti Chatterjee, Pankaj Doshi and Guruswamy Kumaraswamy
Soft Matter, 2017, 13, 5731-5740

Phase behaviour of the ternary system: monoolein-water-branched polyethylenimine
Manoj Kumar and Guruswamy Kumaraswamy
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 5705-5711

Compact polar moieties induce lipid-water systems to form discontinuous reverse micellar phase
Manoj Kumar, Naganath G. Patil, Chandan Kumar Choudhury, Sudip Roy, Ashootosh V. Ambade and Guruswamy Kumaraswamy
Soft Matter, 2015, 11, 5417-5424

Professor Kumaraswamy’s favourite Soft Matter articles

Professor Kumaraswamy has selected some recent publications in Soft Matter that he has found particularly interesting or insightful. These articles are all free to read until 15 July 2022.

Micro- and nanocelluloses from non-wood waste sources; processes and use in industrial applications
Julius Gröndahl, Kaisa Karisalmi and Jaana Vapaavuori
Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 9842-9858

Impact of dynamic covalent chemistry and precise linker length on crystallization kinetics and morphology in ethylene vitrimers
Bhaskat Soman, Yoo Kyung Go, Chengtian Shen, Cecilia Leal and Christopher M. Evans
Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 293-303
From our cross-journal themed collection on ‘Polymer Networks’ between Soft Matter and Polymer Chemistry

Modeling polymer crystallisation induced by a moving heat sink
Sabin Adhikari, Ahana Purushothaman, Alejandro A. Krauskopf, Christopher Durning, Sanat K. Kumar and Sumesh P. Thampi
Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 2518-2529

All these articles are currently FREE to read until 15 July 2022!

Professor Alfred Crosby has been appointed as the new Editor-in-Chief of Soft Matter, taking over from Professor Darrin Pochan, after serving as an Associate Editor since 2017. Alfred J. Crosby is a Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Co-Director of the Center for Evolutionary Materials. His research interests lie generally in bio-inspired materials mechanics, especially topics including adhesion, nanoparticle assemblies, gels, thin films, fracture, hierarchical materials, and elastic instabilities.  He has received numerous awards, including being a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the American Physical Society, and his research has been covered extensively in the popular media. Read more on his group webpage.

What attracted you to pursue a career in soft materials and how did you get to where you are now?

Like many soft matter researchers, my career path was not by design. However, I clearly recall sitting in an undergraduate course and having the professor say that polymers weren’t worth studying since they follow no systematic rules for materials – I personally took this as a challenge! Soft matter, as we know, follows a beautiful, diverse set of rules and mechanisms, and its diversity provides its strength in addressing some of the most critical problems in our society. 

Embracing this diversity and learning how to communicate across the many fields that intersect in soft matter has been a key part of my career. It is one of the aspects of this field that I love the most – that I can learn evolutionary biology while also learning the latest ideas behind control theory in robotics. Understanding how to build bridges across fields with the concepts of soft matter has been key to learning new ideas that can significantly advance our fundamental knowledge within the field.

What are your thoughts on the future of the soft matter field?

The soft matter field is growing faster and larger than anyone may have imagined a decade or two ago. Scientists and engineers at the heart of this field have made great strides in the sophistication and efficiency with which they can address challenges – from helping to package and deliver vaccines to designing robotic devices that manoeuvre with care and agility. Our ability to control structure-property-performance in soft systems is impressive, and the future is bright for continued innovation and step-change discoveries. However, soft matter is also at the heart of many of the most critical global challenges – reducing waste, developing a circular materials economy, decreasing the consumption of non-renewable resources, enhancing renewable energy sources, and providing clean water, nutrition, and resources for healthy living. Our field is poised to play a leading role in addressing these challenges – especially with its strong connection to biology and the materials and mechanisms that Nature already uses.

What role do you think the journal Soft Matter can play in this?

I am excited for Soft Matter to play a central role in engaging the community and helping to share its knowledge to not only those “in the field” but even more importantly, to those in adjacent fields and beyond. Soft Matter’s roots are in providing a forum to encourage communication of complex, multidisciplinary concepts in a way that opens doors for new discoveries. We are excited to continue innovating to broaden this forum and to open it to all scientists and engineers. We are committed to increasing access in an inclusive and equitable manner. Soft Matter will continue to be “the home” for the most impactful scientific advances and technological discoveries in soft matter, and we look forward to working with the entire community to provide the most welcoming, efficient, and scientifically thorough venue for sharing solutions to global challenges.

What are you most looking forward to in your new role as Editor in Chief for Soft Matter?

I am most excited to listen and talk with researchers around the globe in the field of soft matter. I want to hear how Soft Matter can be improved to enhance the positive impact that our field has on addressing global challenges, and I want to be a leader that helps to make these ideas a reality.

Why do you feel that researchers should choose to publish their work in Soft Matter?

Soft Matter played a leading role in defining the field that we know today, and our Editorial Board is committed to maximizing the impact that it will continue to have in the next decade and beyond. Our Editorial Board and staff work together to ensure that we are publishing the most significant advances in a timely manner. Together with our strong community of reviewers, we help authors convey the essential lessons that their research results reveal and to ensure that these lessons will be transferable across a broad, multidisciplinary audience.

Zhihong Nie is a Professor in the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and Department of Macromolecular Science at Fudan University, China. Prior to this position, he was a tenured faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. His current research focuses on molecular and nanoparticle self-assembly, biomedical imaging and delivery, programmable soft materials, and microfluidics. He has received various awards including the NSF CAREER Award and the 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award. Read more on his group webpage.

Zhihong has given his insight and thoughts on the future of the soft materials field:

“The field of soft matter is still relatively young and many problems remain open. Unlike hard matter, soft matter is highly heterogeneous, dynamic and complex in its structure. Such characteristics make soft matter’s problems challenging to tackle. Recent advances in characterization tools and new technologies are expected to drastically accelerate the understanding, development and application of soft matter.”

“We live in a world where soft matter is ubiquitous. For realizing a sustainable society, more and more hard and heavy materials will be replaced by soft and light materials. More and more future technologies will be built on soft matter. It is fair to say that we are entering a new era of soft matter that will reshape our world.”

Editor’s choice: Zhihong’s favourite Soft Matter articles

Here are four publications that Zhihong has chosen as his favourite recent articles in Soft Matter.

Molecular understanding for large deformations of soft bottlebrush polymer networks
Li-Heng Cai
Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 6259-6264
From one our 2021 Soft Matter Emerging Investigators

3D aggregation of cells in packed microgel media
Cameron D. Morley, Jesse Tordoff, Christopher S. O’Bryan, Ron Weiss and Thomas E. Angelini
Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 6572-6581
From our Liquid Composites themed collection

Collective motion of chiral Brownian particles controlled by a circularly-polarized laser beam
Raúl Josué Hernández, Francisco J. Sevilla, Alfredo Mazzulla, Pasquale Pagliusi, Nicola Pellizzid and Gabriella Cipparrone
Soft Matter, 2020, 16, 7704-7714

Finger directed surface charges for local droplet motion
Ning Li, Cunlong Yu, Zhichao Dong and Lei Jiang
Soft Matter, 2020, DOI: 10.1039/d0sm01073a

All these articles are currently FREE to read until 19^th November 2020!

Amy Shen is a professor in Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University in Japan. Her research is focused on microfluidics, rheology, and self-assembly, with applications in nanotechnology and biotechnology. She received the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award in 2003 and the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award in 2007. Amy was also a Fulbright Scholar in 2013. More recently, she gave the 2019 Bergveld lecture at the University of Twente, Netherlands. She is an associate editor for Micromachines, Biomedical Microdevices, and belongs to the editorial advisory boards of VIEW and Physics of Fluids. Amy is also a Series Editor for the RSC Soft Matter book series.

Learn more about Amy by reading some of her research articles below!

Flow of wormlike micellar solutions around microfluidic cylinders with high aspect ratio and low blockage ratio
Simon J. Haward, Naoyuki Kitajima, Kazumi Toda-Peters, Tsutomu Takahashi and Amy Q. Shen 
Soft Matter, 2019,15, 1927-1941

Evaporation and morphological patterns of bi-dispersed colloidal droplets on hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces
R. Iqbal, B. Majhy, Amy Q. Shen and A. K. Sen  
Soft Matter, 2018,14, 9901-9909

Temperature controlled tensiometry using droplet microfluidics
Doojin Lee, Cifeng Fang, Aniket S. Ravan, Gerald G. Fullerc and Amy Q. Shen  
Lab Chip, 2017,17, 717-726

All these articles are currently FREE to read until the 15^th May!

Ewa Gorecka is a professor at the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on the study of liquid crystals, gels and nanoparticles using various X-ray diffraction and microscopic methods to study the structure of these materials at the nanoscale. She is also interested in the mechanisms of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in soft matter. Her latest publications concern the use of X-ray diffraction methods to solve the structure of chiral phases with limited positional order.

Learn more about Ewa by reading some of her research articles below!

Calamitic and discotic liquid crystalline phases for mesogens with triangular cores
Jadwiga Szydłowska, Adam Krówczyński, Ewa Górecka and Damian Pociecha
Soft Matter, 2019, 15, 7195-7202

Molecular curvature, specific intermolecular interactions and the twist-bend nematic phase: the synthesis and characterisation of the 1-(4-cyanobiphenyl-4′-yl)-6-(4-alkylanilinebenzylidene-4′-oxy)hexanes (CB6O.m)
Rebecca Walker, Damian Pociecha, Grant J. Strachan, John M. D. Storey, Ewa Gorecka and Corrie T. Imrie
Soft Matter, 2019, 15, 3188-3197

Organic nanotubes created from mesogenic derivatives
Vladimíra Novotná, Věra Hamplová, Lubor Lejček, Damian Pociecha, Martin Cigl, Ladislav Fekete, Milada Glogarová, Lucie Bednárová, Pawel W. Majewski and Ewa Gorecka
Nanoscale Adv., 2019, 1, 2835-2839

All these articles are currently FREE to read until the 31^st March 2020!

We are excited to welcome three new members to the Soft Matter editorial board Gijsje Koenderink (AMOLF), Emanuela Zaccarelli (Sapienza University of Rome), Xuehua Zhang (RMIT University). 

Gijsje Koenderink is professor of Biological Soft Matter at the NWO Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam, where she also heads the Systems Biophysics Department. She is furthermore affiliated with the Faculty of Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She received her PhD in chemistry from Utrecht University, studying phase behaviour and dynamics in colloidal mixtures, and moved into the field of cell biophysics during her postdoc at Harvard University.

Koenderink’s research focuses on experimental physics of living matter, right at the interface of biophysics and soft condensed matter. Koenderink received several prestigious personals grants including an HFSP Young Investigator grant, NWO-VIDI, and ERC StG grant.

Emanuela Zaccarelli is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Complex Systems of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), based at the Physics Department of the Sapienza University of Rome. After graduating in Physics at the same University in 1999, she obtained a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University College of Dublin, Ireland in 2002.

Emanuela’s main research interests are on phase behavior and dynamic arrest of complex fluids, including colloids with depletion interactions, star polymers, microgels, clays and patchy particles.

She was the first recipient of the Soft Matter Lectureship in 2009 for her studies on gels and glasses in colloidal suspensions.

Xuehua Zhang completed her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. From July 2014 on she joined RMIT University as an Associate Professor in School of Engineering and in October 2014 she was also appointed as a part-time Professor in Physics of Fluids Group at University of Twente.

Her research topics cover surface nanobubbles and nanodroplets, microwetting, surface forces, spontaneous emulsification, microextraction, self-assembly of colloids, evaporation and dissolution of multicomponent droplets, and bubble dynamics in catalytic reactions.

We are delighted that they have joined the Soft Matter team!