Themed collection Soft Matter 20th Anniversary Collection

The resistance of the liquid drop-like nucleus to deformation is dependent on whether the nuclear lamina is smooth or wrinkled. When it is smooth and taut, the nuclear shape can be calculated from geometric constraints on volume and surface area.

Peptide-mediated liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) underpins the formation of dynamic biomolecular condensates, regulated by diverse molecular interactions, and highlights potential applications in drug delivery and synthetic biology.

This review revisits the works of Toyoichi Tanaka on the physics of polymer gels and discusses their scientific significance, covering volume phase transition, structure, dynamics, kinetics and inhomogeneities, followed by some recent topics.

Chiral analytes can bind to an achiral fluorescent system to generate circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). Subsequently, the CPL signal can be employed to determine the absolute configuration of the chiral substrate.

We perform a dual rheological and NMR systematic characterization of CMC/CB hydrogels emphasizing phase transitions through the variation of both the gel formulation and temperature.

Does a knife-like wedge-shaped tips always split a centrally impacting water drop?  Here, we combine experiments and volume of fluid (VOF) simulations to investigate this process. The answer might surprise you—find out in this manuscript.

Increasing the rotational inertia of the active head in the active polymer enhances the knotting and weakens the adsorption of an end-grafted active polymer. Knotted polymers are less adsorbed than unknotted ones.

Phytoglycogen-dopamine hybrids are developed as very sticky and biodegradable (towards glucosidase enzymes) underwater adhesive materials.

²H NMR spectroscopy, MD simulations, X-ray diffraction and electrooptic measurements show a very high tilt angle in the orthoconic antiferroelectric phase.

A monodisperse mixture of active and passive particles can be separated using an elastic meshwork with a mesh size smaller than the particle size.

Urea has environmental, agricultural and clinical importance being present in many bodily fluids including blood, urine, tears and sweat.

Tailoring the alkyl groups of biparental polyelectrolytes in the Janus evaporator effectively disrupts water hydrogen bonding, achieving a low water evaporation enthalpy of 1434 J g⁻¹ and an evaporation rate of 4.1 kg m⁻² h⁻¹.

Fibrous biopolymer gels under compression lose volume by the flow of water through pores. Fluid flow and network deformation in the gel are non-uniform. A model accounting for buckling of fibers captures the observed deformation and flow patterns.

We study how self-organised active flows in confined channels disperse solutes and extend the Taylor–Aris dispersion law to incorporate active nematic flows.

We determine the effective modulus of particle-packing containing hard and soft spheres via nanoindentation and compare the value with those obtained from cracking of drying colloidal films and buckling of drying colloidal drops.

The tangible effects of the interfaces and cross-linking density on the domain size of the polydomain structures of nematic liquid crystal elastomers were explored.

We have investigated the adsorption of α-Synuclein (αSyn) onto small unilamellar vesicles composed of zwitterionic POPC and anionic POPS lipids, as well as the impact αSyn fibril formation has on vesicle stability.

The incorporation of a glassy material into a self-assembled nanoparticle (NP) film can produce highly loaded nanocomposites, with improved photostability under the right conditions.

We demonstrate the generation of diverse material flow regimes in nematic liquid cells as driven by time-variable active surface anchoring, including no-net flow, oscillatory flow, steady flow, and pulsating flow.

Eco-friendly poly(acrylamide-co-sodium acrylate)/polyethyleneglycol hybrid gels reinforced with Bentonite, Kaolin, Mica, Graphene and Silica for enhanced elasticity, swelling and adsorptive properties.

M13 phage are a novel microrheological probe that are sensitive to polymer relaxations, capturing DNA dynamics and revealing universal scaling behaviors across the unentangled and entangled regimes.

Mucus is composed of a complex network of mucin polymers connected by disulfide bonds.

This study focuses on the microscopic processes of crack growth in a composite of knitted fabric and soft matrix in the course direction under both monotonic and cyclic stretching.

The assembly and dynamics of polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) and polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) are influenced by water content, pH, and salt concentration.

We report a solvent-free assembly method where microspheres align on fluorocarbon patterns without rigid boundaries, creating tunable crystal patterns. Our findings highlight the impact of tribocharging and substrate elasticity on particle ordering.

We adapt a dynamical system approach to the practical matter of estimating relaxation times in both cooled liquids and crystals at elevated temperatures, which we identify as weakly non-integrable dynamical systems.

We leverage in situ enzymatic topological conversion and OpTiDDM to map the deformation dynamics of DNA blends with over 70 fractions of linear, ring and supercoiled molecules that span the phase space of possible topological compositions.

Curvature in a microfluidic channel can be used to induce and enhance the propulsion of magnetically driven microscopic rotors.

Rheo-dielectric studies of soft materials provide important information on the dynamic structure and electric polarization.