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The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter

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A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Soft Matter".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 December 2024) | Viewed by 19892

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Dr. Ingo Dierking

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Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, UK
Interests: liquid crystals; chiral liquid crystals; ferroelectric liquid crystals; polymer stabilized liquid crystals; nanoparticles in anisotropic fluids; liquid crystal-nanotube dispersions; defects and defect dynamics; phase ordering in soft matter; fractal structures
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Launched in 2008, Materials has provided readers with high-quality content edited by active researchers in materials science for 15 years through a model of sustainable open access and outstanding editorial service. Today, the published papers receive more than 1,500,000 views per month, with readers from more than 150 countries and regions.

We would like to celebrate the 15^th anniversary of the journal Materials with a Special Issue on the recent advances in soft matter.

As already suggested by their name, soft materials are those that can be stimulated by very small energies of the order of thermal fluctuations, kT. They possess extremely small elastic constants and the respective deforming forces can be mechanical, electric, magnetic, thermal or even optic in nature. Further, soft matter often exhibits the properties of self-assembly and self-organisation. The main representatives of this class of materials are soft polymers, colloidal solids and liquid crystals, but it also includes granular matter, foams, gels, soft interfaces, surfactants and biological macromolecules.

A fundamental understanding of soft matter is of outstanding importance both from an experimental and theoretical point of view, and simulations can be carried out to be able to control, tune, tailor, enhance and predict their properties. It is then possible to exploit these materials in countless applications, as is already conducted, for example, in packaging materials, the food and beauty industry, healthcare and medicine, displays and switchable optical components, and fabrics.

Contributions to this Special Issue can cover a broad field of topics, as indicated by the keywords, which is by no means exhaustive and should be seen as a general guide.

Dr. Ingo Dierking
Guest Editor

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Keywords

soft polymers
colloidal solids
liquid crystals (thermotropic or lyotropic)
gels, foams, surfactants, soft interfaces, suspensions and complex fluids
biological materials
granular matter
self-assembly and self-organisation
active matter
soft (tuneable) photonic and metamaterials
stimuli responsive soft materials (thermal, electric, magnetic, mechanical and optic)
new experimental techniques for soft matter (mechanical, rheological, scattering, imaging and microscopic)
theory and simulation of soft matter
phase transitions and glass transition
application of machine learning to soft matter

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Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

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5 pages, 442 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Recent Advances in Soft Matter

by Ingo Dierking

Materials 2025, 18(7), 1440; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18071440 - 25 Mar 2025

Viewed by 273

Abstract

As the current Section Editor for Soft Matter of Materials, I am delighted to be able to present a Special Issue of the journal: Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

15 pages, 4921 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Thin Cells of Polymer-Modified Liquid Crystals Described by Voronoi Diagrams

by Felicity Woolhouse and Ingo Dierking

Materials 2025, 18(5), 1106; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18051106 - 28 Feb 2025

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 408

Abstract

We investigated patterns formed during the polymerization process of bifunctional monomers in a liquid crystal for both large polymer concentrations (polymer-dispersed liquid crystals, PDLC) and small concentrations (polymer-stabilized liquid crystals, PSLC). The resulting experimental patterns are reminiscent of Voronoi diagrams, so a reverse Voronoi algorithm was developed that provides the seed locations of cells, thus allowing a computational reproduction of the experimental patterns. Several metrics were developed to quantify the commonality between the faithful experimental patterns and the idealized and generated ones. This led to descriptions of the experimental patterns with accuracies better than 90% and showed that the curvature or concavity of the cell edges was below 2%. Possible reasons for the discrepancies between the original and generated Voronoi diagrams are discussed. The introduced algorithm and quantification of the patterns could be transferred to many other experimental problems, for example, melting of thin polymer films, ultra-thin metal films, or bio-membranes. The discrepancies between the experimental and ideal Voronoi diagrams are quantified, which may be useful in the quality control of privacy windows, reflective displays, or smart glass. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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19 pages, 51910 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding the Dissolution of Cellulose and Silk Fibroin in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium Acetate and Dimethyl Sulphoxide for Application in Hybrid Films

by James A. King, Peter J. Hine, Daniel L. Baker and Michael E. Ries

Materials 2024, 17(21), 5262; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17215262 - 29 Oct 2024

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1033

Abstract

This paper investigates the dissolution of two biopolymers, cellulose and silk fibroin, in a mixture of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate (EmimAc) and dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO). EmimAc is a promising environmentally friendly solvent currently in wide use but can be limited by its high viscosity, which inhibits the speed of dissolution. To mediate this, DMSO has been used as a cosolvent and has been shown to significantly lower the solution viscosity and aid mass transport. Dissolution experiments are carried out separately for both cellulose and silk fibrion with a range of EmimAc:DMSO ratios from 100 wt% EmimAc to 100 wt% DMSO. Interestingly, the optimal EmimAc:DMSO ratio (in terms of dissolution speed) is found to be very different for the two biopolymers. For cellulose, a mixture of 20 wt% EmimAc with 80 wt% DMSO is found to have the fastest dissolution speed, while for silk fibroin, a ratio of 80 wt% EmimAc with 20 wt% DMSO proves the fastest. These dissolution trials are complemented by rheological and nuclear magnetic resonance experiments to provide further insight into the underlying mechanisms. Finally, we produce hybrid biopolymer films from a solution to show how this work provides a foundation for future effective dissolution and the preparation of hybrid biopolymer films and hybrid biocomposites. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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9 pages, 1248 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Enhanced Diffusion and Non-Gaussian Displacements of Colloids in Quasi-2D Suspensions of Motile Bacteria

by Xiao Chen and Yaner Yan

Materials 2024, 17(20), 5013; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17205013 - 14 Oct 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1006

Abstract

In the real world, active agents interact with surrounding passive objects, thus introducing additional degrees of complexity. The relative contributions of far-field hydrodynamic and near-field contact interactions to the anomalous diffusion of passive particles in suspensions of active swimmers remain a subject of ongoing debate. We constructed a quasi-two-dimensional microswimmer–colloid mixed system by taking advantage of Serratia marcescens’ tendency to become trapped at the air–water interface to investigate the origins of the enhanced diffusion and non-Gaussianity of the displacement distributions of passive colloidal tracers. Our findings reveal that the diffusion behavior of colloidal particles exhibits a strong dependence on bacterial density. At moderate densities, the collective dynamics of bacteria dominate the diffusion of tracer particles. In dilute bacterial suspensions, although there are multiple dynamic types present, near-field contact interactions such as collisions play a major role in the enhancement of colloidal transport and the emergence of non-Gaussian displacement distributions characterized by heavy exponential tails in short times. Despite the distinct types of microorganisms and their diverse self-propulsion mechanisms, a generality in the diffusion behavior of passive colloids and their underlying dynamics is observed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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14 pages, 5337 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Ad Hoc Modeling of Rate-Dependent Adhesion in Indentation Relaxation Testing

by Ivan I. Argatov, Iakov A. Lyashenko and Valentin L. Popov

Materials 2024, 17(16), 3944; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17163944 - 8 Aug 2024

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1170

Abstract

The phenomenon of rate-dependent adhesion has long been recognized as an intricate problem, and the so-far-developed physics and mechanics-based approaches resulted in analytical relations between the implicit form between the work of adhesion and the contact front velocity which are difficult to implement in practice. To address this issue in the framework of spherical indentation, the adhesion relaxation test in a nominal point contact is introduced to estimate the rate-dependent adhesion. Based on a stretched exponent approximation for the contact radius evolution with time, a relatively simple four-parameter model is proposed for the functional relation between the work of adhesion and the contact front velocity, and its fitting performance is compared to that of the known Greenwood–Johnson and Persson–Brener models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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14 pages, 2197 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reverse Micelles Extraction of Prolamin from Baijiu Jiuzao: Impact of Isolation Process on Protein Structure and Morphology

by Ting-Ting Yu, Fu-Rong Yang, Yao Su, Yi-Heng Qi, Yi Liu and Nan Hu

Materials 2024, 17(12), 2901; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17122901 - 13 Jun 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1138

Abstract

Prolamins, proteins derived from plants, have extensive applications in pharmaceutics and food science. Jiuzao is a byproduct of the Baijiu brewing industry, and is a great source of prolamin. Despite its importance, knowledge regarding the extraction techniques and the properties of prolamin derived from Baijiu Jiuzao (PBJ) remains limited. Reverse micelles (RMs) extraction offers an efficient and cost-effective method for purifying proteins. In the present study, prolamin was extracted from Baijiu Jiuzao using RMs extraction and subsequently characterized in terms of its secondary structure, morphology, and particle size distribution. Our findings indicate that the purified prolamin extracted using further RMs extraction possessed higher α-helix content (+13.25%), forming a large-scale protein network, and narrower particle size distributions compared to the crude prolamin obtained by NaOH-ethanol method. This research suggests that RMs extraction has potential applications in extracting prolamin from brewing industry byproducts, offering an environmentally friendly approach to Baijiu Jiuzao recycling. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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15 pages, 3063 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Microwave Synthesis of Poly(Acrylic) Acid-Coated Magnetic Nanoparticles as Draw Solutes in Forward Osmosis

by Sabina Vohl, Irena Ban, Miha Drofenik, Hermina Buksek, Sašo Gyergyek, Irena Petrinic, Claus Hélix-Nielsen and Janja Stergar

Materials 2023, 16(11), 4138; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16114138 - 1 Jun 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1885

Abstract

Polyacrylic acid (PAA)-coated magnetic nanoparticles (MNP@PAA) were synthesized and evaluated as draw solutes in the forward osmosis (FO) process. MNP@PAA were synthesized by microwave irradiation and chemical co-precipitation from aqueous solutions of Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ salts. The results showed that the synthesized MNPs have spherical shapes of maghemite Fe₂O₃ and superparamagnetic properties, which allow draw solution (DS) recovery using an external magnetic field. Synthesized MNP, coated with PAA, yielded an osmotic pressure of ~12.8 bar at a 0.7% concentration, resulting in an initial water flux of 8.1 LMH. The MNP@PAA particles were captured by an external magnetic field, rinsed in ethanol, and re-concentrated as DS in repetitive FO experiments with deionized water as a feed solution (FS). The osmotic pressure of the re-concentrated DS was 4.1 bar at a 0.35% concentration, resulting in an initial water flux of 2.1 LMH. Taken together, the results show the feasibility of using MNP@PAA particles as draw solutes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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Review

Jump to: Editorial, Research

23 pages, 5690 KiB

Open AccessReview

Ionic Liquid Crystals as Chromogenic Materials

by Andreia F. M. Santos, João L. Figueirinhas, Madalena Dionísio, Maria H. Godinho and Luis C. Branco

Materials 2024, 17(18), 4563; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17184563 - 17 Sep 2024

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1936

Abstract

Ionic liquid crystals (ILCs), a class of soft matter materials whose properties can be tuned by the wise pairing of the cation and anion, have recently emerged as promising candidates for different applications, combining the characteristics of ionic liquids and liquid crystals. Among those potential uses, this review aims to cover chromogenic ILCs. In this context, examples of photo-, electro- and thermochromism based on ILCs are provided. Furthermore, thermotropic and lyotropic ionic liquid crystals are also summarised, including the most common chemical and phase structures, as well as the advantages of confining these materials. This manuscript also comprises the following main experimental techniques used to characterise ILCs: Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Polarised Optical Microscopy (POM) and X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRD). Chromogenic ILCs can be interesting smart materials for energy and health purposes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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32 pages, 11300 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Comprehensive Review of Stimuli-Responsive Smart Polymer Materials—Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

by Alicja Balcerak-Woźniak, Monika Dzwonkowska-Zarzycka and Janina Kabatc-Borcz

Materials 2024, 17(17), 4255; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17174255 - 28 Aug 2024

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4386

Abstract

Today, smart materials are commonly used in various fields of science and technology, such as medicine, electronics, soft robotics, the chemical industry, the automotive field, and many others. Smart polymeric materials hold good promise for the future due to their endless possibilities. This group of advanced materials can be sensitive to changes or the presence of various chemical, physical, and biological stimuli, e.g., light, temperature, pH, magnetic/electric field, pressure, microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, toxic substances, and many others. This review concerns the newest achievements in the area of smart polymeric materials. The recent advances in the designing of stimuli-responsive polymers are described in this paper. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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28 pages, 10595 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Application of Regenerated Silk Fibroin in Tissue Repair

by Zhaoyi Li, Guohongfang Tan, Huilin Xie and Shenzhou Lu

Materials 2024, 17(16), 3924; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17163924 - 7 Aug 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2756

Abstract

Silk fibroin (SF) extracted from silk is non-toxic and has excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, making it an excellent biomedical material. SF-based soft materials, including porous scaffolds and hydrogels, play an important role in accurately delivering drugs to wounds, creating microenvironments for the adhesion and proliferation of support cells, and in tissue remodeling, repair, and wound healing. This article focuses on the study of SF protein-based soft materials, summarizing their preparation methods and basic applications, as well as their regenerative effects, such as drug delivery carriers in various aspects of tissue engineering such as bone, blood vessels, nerves, and skin in recent years, as well as their promoting effects on wound healing and repair processes. The authors expect SF soft materials to play an important role in the field of tissue repair. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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20 pages, 7003 KiB

Open AccessReview

Research Progress of Electrically Driven Multi-Stable Cholesteric Liquid Crystals

by Kainan Wang, Wentuo Hu, Wanli He, Zhou Yang, Hui Cao, Dong Wang and Yuzhan Li

Materials 2024, 17(1), 136; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17010136 - 27 Dec 2023

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2010

Abstract

Electrically driven multi-stable cholesteric liquid crystals can be used to adjust the transmittance of incident light. Compared with the traditional liquid crystal optical devices, the multi-stable devices only apply an electric field during switching and do not require a continuous electric field to maintain the various optical states of the device. Therefore, the multi-stable devices have low energy consumption and have become a research focus for researchers. However, the multi-stable devices still have shortcomings before practical application, such as contrast, switching time, and mechanical strength. In this article, the latest research progress on electrically driven multi-stable cholesteric liquid crystals is reviewed, including electrically driven multi-stable modes, performance optimization, and applications. Finally, the challenges and opportunities of electrically driven multi-stable cholesteric liquid crystals are discussed in anticipation of contributing to the development of multi-stable liquid crystal devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 15th Anniversary of Materials—Recent Advances in Soft Matter)

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