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New Soft Matter Editorial Board member
14 January 2010
The Soft Matter Editorial Board has one new member, Lei Jiang
Submit to the 43rd IUPAC World Polymer Congress
13 January 2010
Submit your abstract by 29 January 2010 for the chance to present at Macro2010: 43rd IUPAC World Polymer Congress
Soft Matter Award 2010: Call for Nominations
11 January 2010
Nominations are now being accepted for the Soft Matter Award 2010!
Contents list for Soft Matter, issue 4, 2010
Front cover
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 694
DOI: 10.1039/c001745k
Inside front cover
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 695
DOI: 10.1039/c001746a
Contents
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 696
DOI: 10.1039/c001748p
Editorial
Emerging themes in soft matter: responsive and active soft materials
Anna C. Balazs and Julia M. Yeomans,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 703
DOI: 10.1039/c000662a
This theme issue of Soft Matter focuses on the emerging theme of responsive and active materials. It covers a range of research looking into 
smart
materials that are capable of producing a global behavior in response to a local signal.
Highlights
Smart bioactive surfaces
Erik Wischerhoff, Nezha Badi, Jean-François Lutz and André Laschewsky,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 705
DOI: 10.1039/b913594d
This highlight discusses the field of synthetic bioactive surfaces. Different types of man-made materials capable of interacting with biological objects (e.g. proteins, viruses, bacteria or cells) are analyzed and discussed.
Immersed superhydrophobic surfaces: Gas exchange, slip and drag reduction properties
Glen McHale, Michael I. Newton and Neil J. Shirtcliffe,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 714
DOI: 10.1039/b917861a
Immersion of some materials possessing superhydrophobic surfaces results in persistent surface-retained air-films. This provides a vapour-liquid interface allowing underwater respiration/gas exchange and modification of flow patterns inducing drag reduction.
Emerging Area
Application of smart organic nanocontainers in feedback active coatings
Dmitry G. Shchukin, Dmitry O. Grigoriev and Helmuth Möhwald,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 720
DOI: 10.1039/b918437f
Smart organic nanocontainers possessing the ability to release various encapsulated materials in a controlled way can be employed to introduce a new family of feedback active multifunctional coatings for biomedical and protection applications. These coatings have rapid feedback activity in response to changes of a mechanical and chemical nature in local environment.
Review
In pursuit of propulsion at the nanoscale
Stephen J. Ebbens and Jonathan R. Howse,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 726
DOI: 10.1039/b918598d
The potential of novel self-propelling nano and micro scale devices to be used to transport small scale components and perform biological transport tasks is reviewed.
Communication
Direct-write assembly of biomimetic microvascular networks for efficient fluid transport
Willie Wu, Christopher J. Hansen, Alejandro M. Aragón, Philippe H. Geubelle, Scott R. White and Jennifer A. Lewis,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 739
DOI: 10.1039/b918436h
We report a novel technique for fabricating complex biomimetic microvascular networks with engineered flow optimization using direct-write assembly.
Papers
Quantifying hydrogel response using laser light scattering
Joshua M. G. Swann, Wim Bras, Jonathan R. Howse, Paul D. Topham and Anthony J. Ryan,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 743
DOI: 10.1039/b918249g
For the first time, laser light scattering has been proven to be an inexpensive and effective analytical tool for measuring quantitatively hydrogel response on the microscopic scale.
Microbristle in gels: Toward all-polymer reconfigurable hybrid surfaces
Philseok Kim, Lauren D. Zarzar, Xuanhe Zhao, Alexander Sidorenko and Joanna Aizenberg,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 750
DOI: 10.1039/b920392c
The integration of a soft, polymeric microbristle with a patterned hydrogel muscle enables the fabrication of responsive, reversibly actuated surface structures that easily reconfigure into intricate geometries upon hydrogel's swelling/contraction.
Swimming upstream: self-propelled nanodimer motors in a flow
Yu-Guo Tao and Raymond Kapral,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 756
DOI: 10.1039/b918906h
Chemically-powered self-propelled nanodimer motors swim upstream when confined in a square channel within which a Poiseuille-like fluid flow is present.
A coarse-grained model of targeted drug delivery from responsive polymer nanoparticles
Ernest W. Durbin and Gavin A. Buxton,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 762
DOI: 10.1039/b918476g
A coarse-grained computer model is used to capture the dynamics of a responsive core–shell nanoparticle, and the targeted release of an encapsulated drug.
Designing autonomously motile gels that follow complex paths
Pratyush Dayal, Olga Kuksenok and Anna C. Balazs,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 768
DOI: 10.1039/b918434a
We use non-uniform illumination to direct the movement of chemo-responsive polymer gels along complex paths, guiding them to bend, reorient and turn.
Hydrodynamics of non-homogeneous active gels
D. Marenduzzo and E. Orlandini,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 774
DOI: 10.1039/b919113e
We study numerically the hydrodynamics of active fluids with spatially inhomogeneous activity. Extensile fluids form spontaneously rotating vortices which can synchronise, whereas contractile ones spontaneous nucleate defects.
Liquid crystalline polymer cantilever oscillators fueled by light
Svetlana Serak, Nelson Tabiryan, Rafael Vergara, Timothy J. White, Richard A. Vaia and Timothy J. Bunning,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 779
DOI: 10.1039/b916831a
Cantilevers composed of azobenzene liquid crystal polymer networks oscillate at frequencies as high as 270 Hz when exposed to laser or solar sources.
A theory of constrained swelling of a pH-sensitive hydrogel
Romain Marcombe, Shengqiang Cai, Wei Hong, Xuanhe Zhao, Yuri Lapusta and Zhigang Suo,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 784
DOI: 10.1039/b917211d
A nonlinear field theory is described for pH-sensitive hydrogels undergoing inhomogeneous deformation. The theory is implemented as a finite element method in the commercial software ABAQUS.
Modeling magnetic microcapsules that crawl in microchannels
Hassan Masoud and Alexander Alexeev,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 794
DOI: 10.1039/b916835d
Using computational modeling, we examine how fluid-filled magnetic microcapsules in a circulating magnetic field can be arranged to propel themselves along sticky surfaces and, in this manner, could be harnessed as microscopic transport vehicles in microfluidic devices.
pH-responsive photoluminescent LbL hydrogels with confined quantum dots
Eugenia Kharlampieva, Veronika Kozlovskaya, Oleksandra Zavgorodnya, George Daniel Lilly, Nicholas A. Kotov and Vladimir V. Tsukruk,
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 800
DOI: 10.1039/b917845g
We report on photoluminescent hybrid materials with quantum dots immobilized in organized manner fabricated by spin-assisted layer-by-layer assembly. The system undergoes reversible changes in photoluminescent intensity in response to pH variations and, therefore, might be developed into or pH- or chemical sensors.
Back cover
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 809
DOI: 10.1039/c001749n
Back cover
Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 809
DOI: 10.1039/c001751p
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