Colloids articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design of synthetic systems that can sense chemical gradients and respond with directional motility and chemical activity is of interest. Here, the authors realize and control such behaviors in a synthetic system by tailoring multivalent interactions of adenosine nucleotides with catalytic microbeads.

    • Ekta Shandilya
    • , Bhargav Rallabandi
    •  & Subhabrata Maiti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inertial active matter can self-organize into coexisting phases that feature different temperatures, but experimental realizations are limited. Here, the authors report the coexistence of hot liquid and cold gas states in mixtures of overdamped active and inertial passive Brownian particles, giving a broader relevance.

    • Lukas Hecht
    • , Iris Dong
    •  & Benno Liebchen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structurally coloured composite films are flexible optical materials with potential in a range of applications, but their production is impacted by long time-frames and limited materials. Here, the authors report a method for the production of large scale films by shearing supramolecular composites.

    • Miaomiao Li
    • , Bolun Peng
    •  & Jintao Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It has been demonstrated theoretically earlier that a dense phase made of repulsive active particles, in phase-separating regime, exhibit wetting-like behaviors: wall-meniscus or capillary rise in channels. Here authors experimentally investigate a non-phase separating assembly of active colloids under gravity and show that a wetting-like phenomenology persists against a vertical wall, and they evidence a counter-gravity wall climbing.

    • Adérito Fins Carreira
    • , Adam Wysocki
    •  & Cécile Cottin-Bizonne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ability of living systems to process signals and information is of vital importance. Inspired by nature, Wang and Cichos show an experimental realization of a physical reservoir computer using self-propelled active microparticles to predict chaotic time series such as the Mackey–Glass and Lorenz series.

    • Xiangzun Wang
    •  & Frank Cichos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Packing a finite number of spheres in a compact cluster does not always result in the densest packing. Here, the authors provide a physical realization of the finite sphere packing problem by enclosing colloids in a flaccid lipid vesicle and mapping out a state diagram that displays linear, planar, and cluster conformations of spheres, as well as bistable states that alternate between cluster-plate and plate-linear conformations.

    • Susana Marín-Aguilar
    • , Fabrizio Camerin
    •  & Marjolein Dijkstra

  • Article
    | Open Access

    External fields can control the motion of colloidal particles inducing different trajectories depending on for instance the particle size. The authors here use nonperiodic energy landscapes and topological protection to transport a collection of identical colloidal particles simultaneously and independently.

    • Nico C. X. Stuhlmüller
    • , Farzaneh Farrokhzad
    •  & Daniel de las Heras

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Indirect coordination among individuals through the environment typically requires some basic levels of communication and information processing. Dias et al. introduce a coordination mechanism that emerges in a population of clueless individuals, facilitated by environmental memory, culminating in group formation.

    • Cristóvão S. Dias
    • , Manish Trivedi
    •  & Giorgio Volpe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dielectric colloids suspended in a weak electrolyte and energized by a static electric field called Quincke rollers are the model system to study active matter. Zhang et al. report the formation of spontaneous shockwaves in the colloidal Quincke rollers under the temporal activity modulations.

    • Bo Zhang
    • , Andreas Glatz
    •  & Alexey Snezhko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Stimuli-responsive emulsions are useful for long-term storage combined with controlled release, but the fundamental mechanism behind this release is not established. Here, the authors report a study into the effect of individual microgel morphology on the destabilisation of responsive emulsions.

    • Marcel Rey
    • , Jannis Kolker
    •  & Paul S. Clegg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Solitons are peculiar waves propagating without changing their shape. Here, the authors show that colloidal particles in a rotating optical landscape create rapidly propagating solitons, formed by particle clusters through many-body interactions.

    • Eric Cereceda-López
    • , Alexander P. Antonov
    •  & Pietro Tierno

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Concentration polarization electroosmosis (CPEO) has recently been found to produce similar flow patterns around spheres in an AC electric field as induced charge electroosmosis. Katzmeier and Simmel study the flow around the asymmetric particle dimers caused by CPEO and design a microrobot that can be steered with a joystick and facilitates the transport of cargo particles.

    • Florian Katzmeier
    •  & Friedrich C. Simmel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mechanical properties of materials are governed by dislocations, yet it remains a challenge to resolve their evolution on the atomic scale. Svetlizky et al. use colloidal crystals to investigate, in three dimensions, how dislocations enable plastic relaxation and the formation of networks.

    • Ilya Svetlizky
    • , Seongsoo Kim
    •  & Frans Spaepen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Thermodynamics predicts equilibrium crystal structures and kinetics discover the pathway to form them. The authors investigate the interplay of thermodynamics and kinetics in the formation of colloidal clusters and reveal a bifurcation at an early stage of the crystallization process.

    • Chrameh Fru Mbah
    • , Junwei Wang
    •  & Michael Engel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phase separation is driven by the component activity, elasticity, or composition of a homogeneous mixture. Here the authors, develop heterogeneous colloidal suspensions exhibiting both liquid-liquid phase separation of polymers and liquid crystal phase separation of nanoparticles controlled by the trade-off between thermodynamics and kinetics.

    • Han Tao
    • , Carlo Rigoni
    •  & Guang Chu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The coalescence of nuclei plays an important role in phase transitions, but it remains challenging to monitor the process in real time. Here, Peng et al. image the coalescence of two post-critical nuclei in the crystal-crystal transition with single-particle resolution using a colloidal system.

    • Yi Peng
    • , Wei Li
    •  & Yilong Han

  • Article
    | Open Access

    DNA-programmed colloidal assembly of macroscopic crystals for photonic applications remains elusive. Here, the authors use insights from studies of nucleation and seeded growth to develop a two-step method for assembling macroscopic photonic crystals.

    • Alexander Hensley
    • , Thomas E. Videbæk
    •  & W. Benjamin Rogers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanical forces exerted by active fluids may provide an effective way of transporting microscopic objects, but the details remain elusive. Using space modulated activity, Pellicciotta et al. generate active pressure gradients capable of transporting passive particles in controlled directions.

    • Nicola Pellicciotta
    • , Matteo Paoluzzi
    •  & Roberto Di Leonardo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The existence of peripheric charged groups on poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (pNIPAM) microgels together with the corresponding counter ion clouds has been proposed to be responsible for the spontaneous deswelling of pNIPAM microgels in concentrated suspensions but no direct measurement of such an ionic cloud exists. Here, the authors use small-angle neutron scattering with contrast variation with different ions to isolate the change in the form factor directly related to the counterion cloud and obtain its radius and width.

    • Boyang Zhou
    • , Urs Gasser
    •  & Alberto Fernandez-Nieves

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Debye interaction is defined as the attraction between a polar molecule and a nonpolar molecule, which governs many self-assembling processes in materials. Here, Lee et al. design a like-charged colloidal model at the water-oil interface to characterize the Debye interaction for the first time.

    • Hyang Mi Lee
    • , Yong Woo Kim
    •  & Bum Jun Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The colloidal composites of gel and solid inclusions are more commonly encountered in real life. Using simulations, authors identify two lengthscales whose interplay generically controls the gelation in composite gels.

    • Yujie Jiang
    •  & Ryohei Seto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Old Masters used paints containing mixtures of oils and proteins, but we lack an understanding on how and why proteins were used. Here, the authors use egg yolk in combination with two pigments to evaluate how different repartition of proteinaceous binder can be used to control the flow behaviour as well as drying kinetics and chemistry of oil paints.

    • Ophélie Ranquet
    • , Celia Duce
    •  & Norbert Willenbacher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Colloidal particles bonding via attractive patches mimic the bonding of atoms in atomic compounds and materials. By assembling patchy particles into the graphene lattice, the authors obtain insight into lattice defects in this important 2D material.

    • Piet J. M. Swinkels
    • , Zhe Gong
    •  & Peter Schall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Emulsions are critical across a broad spectrum of industries. Here authors demonstrate a mechanism of spontaneous droplet formation, where the interfacial solute flux promotes droplet formation at the liquid-liquid interface when a phase transfer agent is present.

    • Guillermo S. Colón-Quintana
    • , Thomas B. Clarke
    •  & Jeffrey E. Dick

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In heterogeneous colloidal systems, composition, shape, structure and physical properties result from the trade-off between thermodynamic and kinetic effects during nucleation and growth. Here, the authors demonstrate that kinetic and thermodynamic effects can be disentangled by careful selection of a colloidal systems and controlling phase separation in microfluidic devices

    • Hamed Almohammadi
    • , Sandra Martinek
    •  & Raffaele Mezzenga

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Time-delayed interactions involving perception, decision, and reaction, are omnipresent in the living world. Here, the delayed self-propulsion of a microswimmer toward a target gives rise to chiral orbital motion via a symmetry-breaking bifurcation. Additional swimmers synchronize and stabilize it.

    • Xiangzun Wang
    • , Pin-Chuan Chen
    •  & Frank Cichos

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Liquid metals that have enormous surface tension are difficult to pattern into films. Here, authors report the spontaneous and selective wetting of a gallium-based liquid metal, which is induced by imbibition on a micro-structured metallized substrate.

    • Ji-Hye Kim
    • , Sooyoung Kim
    •  & Hyung-Jun Koo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Colloidal crystals are widely applied in the fabrication of optoelectronic devices, but realizing freedom of design, such as in 3D printing, in colloidal crystal fabrication remains challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate a sacrificial-scaffold-mediated two-photon lithography strategy that enables the fabrication of complex 3D colloidal crystal microstructures with orderly arranged nanoparticles in the bulk.

    • Keliang Liu
    • , Haibo Ding
    •  & Zhongze Gu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The formation of nanostructures with chiral symmetry often requires chiral directing agents at a smaller length scale. Here, the authors report the self-assembly of 2D chiral superlattices from achiral tetrahedron-shaped building blocks.

    • Zhihua Cheng
    •  & Matthew R. Jones

  • Article
    | Open Access

    All-in-liquid printing promises applications from energy storage to drug delivery and tissue engineering. Here, authors present the in-situ generation of layered emulsion in a fraction of a second at the oil-water interface forming 3D tube-like structures in a liquid medium.

    • Parisa Bazazi
    • , Howard A. Stone
    •  & S. Hossein Hejazi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While most of the structural colored materials only present isotropic colors, limiting their functions and many practical applications, while realizing anisotropic structural color materials remains challenging. Here, the authors develop a freeze-derived heterogeneous structural color hydrogels for information encryption and decryption.

    • Shuangshuang Miao
    • , Yu Wang
    •  & Yuanjin Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Several biomaterials have been promised as suitable candidates for photonic materials and pigments, but their fabrication processes have been limited to the small to medium-scale production of films. Here, the authors demonstrate a substrate-free process to fabricate structurally coloured microparticles via the confined self-assembly of a cholesteric cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) suspension within emulsified microdroplets.

    • Richard M. Parker
    • , Tianheng H. Zhao
    •  & Silvia Vignolini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The structure of hydrated interfaces is essential for understanding of geochemical processes and behavior of layered minerals. The authors show that waves of hydrated ions emerge at curved aqueous interfaces and couple mineral deformation to the chemistry of the solution.

    • Michael L. Whittaker
    • , David Ren
    •  & Jillian F. Banfield

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chirality transfer across length-scales is an intriguing phenomenon but connecting the properties of individual building blocks to the emergent features of their resulting large-scale structure remains challenging. Here, the authors investigate the origins of mesophase chirality in cellulose nanocrystal suspensions, whose self-assembly into chiral photonic films has attracted significant interest.

    • Thomas G. Parton
    • , Richard M. Parker
    •  & Silvia Vignolini

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Artificial microswimmers can emulate the autonomous regulation of chemotactic motility of living organisms. Frank et al. realize a chemotactic locomotion of emulsion droplets, composed of two phase-separated fluids, that can be reversibly directed up or down a chemical concentration gradient.

    • Bradley D. Frank
    • , Saveh Djalali
    •  & Lukas Zeininger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A quantitative prediction of DNA-mediated interactions between colloids is crucial to the design of colloidal structures for optical applications. Cui et al. measure the interaction potential with nanometer resolution and propose a theory to accurately predict adhesion and melting at a molecular level.

    • Fan Cui
    • , Sophie Marbach
    •  & David J. Pine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biological microswimmers such as bacteria show collective motion that is made possible by an intricate interplay of sensing and signaling. Ketzetzi et al. reproduce this phenomenon in a catalytic system undergoing, for instance, cooperative speed-ups and dynamic reconfiguration of microswimmer chains.

    • Stefania Ketzetzi
    • , Melissa Rinaldin
    •  & Daniela J. Kraft

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the dynamics of grain boundaries and their melting behaviour is important for controlling the mechanical properties of materials. Now, experiments show that grain boundaries can be superheated, and that they melt via a nucleation mechanism.

    • Xiuming Xiao
    • , Lilin Wang
    •  & Ziren Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Endoskeletal droplets are a class of complex colloids containing a solid internal phase cast within a liquid emulsion droplet. Here, authors show acoustic manipulation of solid disks inside liquid droplets whose orientation can be externally controlled with the frequency.

    • Gazendra Shakya
    • , Tao Yang
    •  & Xiaoyun Ding

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors introduce a light powered artificial micro-swimmers performing biological-like dynamics relevant for swarm robotics. The experimental dense swarms are shown to form artificial active clusters with internal fluid-like and turbulent dynamics, similar to real swarming bacteria.

    • Matan Yah Ben Zion
    • , Yaelin Caba
    •  & Paul M. Chaikin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tiny movable components could generate macroscopic mechanical motion if precise coherent operation can be exerted simultaneously. Here, the authors demonstrate this by using 10^10 pieces of colloidally dispersed nanosheets to generate wave under non-equilibrium state.

    • Koki Sano
    • , Xiang Wang
    •  & Takuzo Aida

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