Featured Research Articles Archive
November 08
Polymers strut their stuff under the spotlight
Munenori Yamada et. al.
Chemists in Japan have created light-driven polymer films that walk like inchworms and move like robotic arms.The films, made by Tomiki Ikeda at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Yokahama and collaborators, contain a polymer which contracts when visible light shines on it and expands again under UV light.
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October 08
Todd Squires, October 20, 2008
Some of the most ingenious ideas for designing microfluidic systems come from observing plants and animals. A study that quantifies the protein-driven helical flow of liquid in large plant cells, for instance, may well inspire micron-scale liquid mixers and sensors.
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September 08
Norman J. Wagner, September 22, 2008
A shear force can melt a colloidal glass, causing it to flow in a highly nonlinear fashion. Physicists have now found a way to put the description of this type of flow on a more formal theoretical footing.
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July 08
Timothy J. White, Nelson V. Tabiryan, Svetlana V. Serak, Uladzimir A. Hrozhyk, Vincent P. Tondiglia, Hilmar Koerner, Richard A. Vaia and Timothy J. Bunning, Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1796
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Researchers from the University of Sheffield discuss the fascinating progress of scanning probe microscopy technology and techniques over the past decade and its vital role in soft matter research.
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October 09
Two researchers study the deswelling behavior and response of microgels. Microgels are important materials for both basic science and engineering and have wide applications from the study of phase transitions to the delivery of drugs. These micron and sub-micron particles, made of hydrogel materials, respond to various solvent conditions.
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November 09
Researchers from India investigate a wide variety of lipid molecular systems for the investigation of their membrane-forming properties and have used them for purposes such as gene delivery and enzyme activation.
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December 09
Orientationally correlated colloidal polycrystals without long-range positional order
Wenceslao Gonzalez-Vinas from University of Navarra and Anand Yethiraj from Memorial University (and colleagues) report on the local and global structure of spin-coated colloidal crystals via laser diffraction measurements and scanning electron and atomic force microscopies.
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Nanofiber-supported phospholipid bilayers
Researchers create functional nanofiber networks which mimic the chemical and mechanical environment provided by human cell’s natural actin network, a step towards fabricating artificial cells.
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April 2010
Single-Step Process to Reconstitute Cell Membranes on Solid Supports
M. D. Mager and N. A. Melosh. Langmuir, 2010, 26 (7), pp 4635–4638.
Researchers present a new technique to create supported lipid bilayers from whole cell lipids without the use of detergent or solvent extraction as a modification of the bubble collapse deposition (BCD) technique. This capability to create fluid, biologically relevant bilayers will facilitate the use of highresolution scanning microscopy techniques in the study of membrane-related processes.
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Demixing, remixing and cellular networks in binary liquids containing colloidal particles
Job H. J. Thijssen and Paul S. Clegg. Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 1182 - 1190
Job H. J. Thijssen and Paul S. Clegg, a member of our featured group this month, present a confocal-microscopy study of demixing and remixing in binary liquids containing colloidal particles. Particle-stabilized emulsions, fabricated by nucleation and growth of droplets upon cooling from the single-fluid phase, are heated and the subsequent formation of polyhedral cellular networks of colloids is observed. Given a suitable liquid–liquid composition, the droplets do not shrink and they remain closely packed. These network formations open up an avenue for their application in the fabrication of advanced materials.
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May 2010
Porous gelatin hydrogels by gas-in-liquid foam templating
Andrea Barbetta et al. Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 1785 - 1792, DOI: 10.1039/b920049e
Researchers present how porous gelatin scaffolds were prepared by insufflating an inert gas (argon) inside a concentrated solution of gelatin in the presence of a suitable polymeric surfactant in association with sodium dodecyl sulfate. The scaffolds present a morphology characterised by pores of spherical symmetry highly interconnected by a plurality of interconnections and, as a consequence, are particularly suited for cell culturing. To read more visit RSC publishing.
Collagen functionalised electrospun polymer fibers for bioengineering applications
Ales sandro Polinetal.Soft Matter,2010,6,1668-1674,DOI:10. 1039/b921932c
Researchers present an in-depth study of protein functionalisation for polymethylmethacrylate fibers and compare different coating approaches for type I collagen, including physisorption and covalent binding methods relying on functional linkers. It is demonstrated that the largest amount of proteins adsorbed on fibers does not determine the best performance in terms of cell attachment and proliferation in vitro, which is instead related to the type of linking and the relevant role played by adsorption of serum biomolecules on the three-dimensional nanostructures. To read more visit RSC publishing.
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