Soft Matter Blog

Read these Hot Articles for free until 31 August>>>

Layer-by-layer (LbL) assemblies in nanoporous templates and their benefits for synthesising complex and functional nanotubular structures are described in this Review. 1D Nanostructures fabricated by the LbL nanotemplating strategy have applications in various technological areas, and are part of an emerging area of “soft nanotechnology”. Omar Azzaroni and K. H. Aaron Lau, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05561E.

Gelation of semiflexible polyelectrolytes by multivalent counterions: Filamentous polyelectrolyte viruses have been used to study liquid crystal phase transitions and counterion-mediated condensation into bundles. Longer filamentous phage Pf1 was found to form viscoelastic gels at concentrations well below its theoretical isotropic–nematic transition in solutions containing multivalent counterions. Elisabeth M. Huisman, Qi Wen, Yu-Hsiu Wang, Katrina Cruz, Guntars Kitenbergs, Kaspars Ērglis, Andris Zeltinš, Andrejs Cēbers and Paul A. Janmey, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05553D.

Organic thin film transistors: The reason behind improved performance of organic thin film transistor devices with 6,13-(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) is investigated in this Hot Article. Aggregation and cluster formation of TIPS-pentacene was observed in solution well before the solubility limit. Marie-Beatrice Madec, Sean Butterworth, Pablo Taboada, Richard Heenan, Mark Geoghegan and Stephen G. Yeates, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 7065-7070, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05842H.

 Read these Hot Articles for free until 31 August >>>

Wrinkling of materials can generate periodic nano or microstructures that are crucial for technological applications. Here, the phenomena is studied in ultra thin layers where Van der Waals interactions determine the morphologies. Findings indicate that wrinkling might not be the best way to investigate chain dynamics in these systems… Hugues Vandeparre, Simon Desbief, Roberto Lazzaroni, Cyprien Gay and Pascal Damman, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 6878-6882, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05411B

Holograms of colloidal spheres  were recorded with holographic video microscopy and analyzed with light scattering theory. Individual spheres’ sizes and refractive indexes were measured with part-per-thousand resolution, which was used to estimate each sphere’s porosity. Characterisation of single colloidal spheres is important for applications such as medical diagnostics and photonics. Fook Chiong Cheong, Ke Xiao, David J. Pine and David G. Grier, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 6816-6819, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05577A

Droplet-induced budding in biological membranes is when a liquid drop on the surface of the membrane transforms from being partially wrapped to completely wrapped (see below). This cellular process is important for endocytosis (for communication between organelles) and viral replication. Here, a novel budding mechanism where the driving force is the interfacial tensions between the aqueous phases is investigated. Halim Kusumaatmaja and Reinhard Lipowsky, Soft Matter, 2011, 7, 6914-6919, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05499F

Read these Hot Articles for free until 24 August>>>

Mimicking the natural ECM: Review article on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) for cell culture.  SAMs have emerged as promising tools for mimicking the extracellular matrix and can be precisely tailored for specific cell culture applications. Gregory A. Hudalla and William L. Murphy, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05596H.

Block liposomes for gene storage and delivery: A cryo-TEM study on the formation of block liposomes from membranes comprising mixtures of membrane curvature-stabilizing multivalent lipids. Cationic lipids such as these are important for nonviral delivery of nucleic acids. Alexandra Zidovska, Kai K. Ewert, Joel Quispe, Bridget Carragher, Clinton S. Potter and Cyrus R. Safinya, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05481C.

Surfactochromicity? Cationic water soluble polythiophene polyelectrolyte was complexed with the surfactant sodium dodecylsulfate. The surfactant could be used to control the photophysical properties of the complexes in water. Matti Knaapila, Rachel C. Evans, Andrea Gutacker, Vasil M. Garamus, Noémi K. Székely, Ullrich Scherf and Hugh D. Burrows, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05492A

A new system for studying single polymer dynamics using single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) was developed in this new study. Previously, double-stranded DNA has been used but this semi-flexible biomolecule has markedly different properties compared to flexible synthetic polymers. A straightforward synthesis technique based on rolling circle replication was developed to generate long strands of fluorescently labelled ssDNA, where intramolecular base-pair formation was prevented. The labelled ssDNA molecules were directly imaged in a microfluidic device. Christopher Brockman, Sun Ju Kim and Charles M. Schroeder, Soft Matter, 2011,  DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05297G.

 …And by the same authors: a highlight article on ‘Model systems for single molecule polymer dynamics’, which  discusses model polymer systems in the context of “ideal” and “real” chain behaviour. Folarin Latinwo and Charles M. Schroeder, Soft Matter, 2011,  DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05298E.

 Read both hot articles for free until 12 August.

Read these Hot Articles for free until 8 July…

Tutorial review on soft microorigami: Polymer films which are able to fold and form 3D microstructures are important for optical materials, tissue engineering scaffolds and electronic devices. This review focuses on polymer-based systems and their fabrication, design and applicability for biotechnology. Leonid Ionov, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05476G

Nanocapsules for sustained drug release: The fabricated stable drug delivery systems for poorly water-soluble drugs exhibited a narrow size distribution, which makes them potential candidates for nanocarriers in cancer therapy. Surfactant structure was compared with nanocapsule stability and the number of polyelectrolyte layers required to create exetremely long-term sustained release of active molecules determined. Urszula Bazylińska, Renata Skrzela, Krzysztof Szczepanowicz, Piotr Warszyński and Kazimiera A. Wilk, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05395G

Improved mechanical properties for macroporous polymers: Highly permeable macroporous polymers were synthesised from a Pickering-MIPE template. The mechanical properties were much improved compared to porous media synthesised using conventional high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) templates. Vivian O. Ikem, Angelika Menner and Alexander Bismarck, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05272A

Read these Hot Articles for free until June 24:

Fernandez-Nieves and co-workers describe the use of hydrostatic pressure to change the size and structure of poly-(N-isopropylacrylamide) based microgel particles. These changes rely on changes in the miscibility of the polymer in the solvent. Pressure was found to play an analogous role to temperature in swelling of the gels. Juan José Liétor-Santos, Benjamín Sierra-Martín, Urs Gasser and Alberto Fernández-Nieves, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05328K

The viscous drag friction acting on fluid drops in confined geometries is a fundamental issue when dealing with small amounts of liquid. Researchers have established unexpectedly simple scaling laws for viscous drag friction in different regimes, replacing the well-known Stokes’ friction law. Ayako Eri and Ko Okumura, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0SM01535K

Supramolecular assembly is demonstrated to efficiently control the microdomain orientation in block copolymer thin films. The effect of low-molecular-weight additives on the microdomain orientation was investigated. At low grafting density the microdomains are parallel to the surface, while above a critical grafting density they switch to perpendicular.  Chih-Hung Lee and Shih-Huang Tung, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SM05334E