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Faraday Discussion 143: Soft Nanotechnology
26 June 2008
Submit an abstract for your chance to present your work at the meeting (June 2009, London, UK) and be published in Faraday Discussions. Deadline - 18 July 2008
Chemistry in the New World of Bioengineering and Synthetic Biology
25 June 2008
A new conference exploring the interfaces between the physical sciences and biology. Early bird registration deadline 18 July
Soft Matter still top journal in the field
18 June 2008
With its best ever impact factor of 4.7, Soft Matter is still the number one journal in the field.
Contents list for Soft Matter, issue 7, 2008
Front cover
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1329
DOI: 10.1039/b809536c
Contents
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1331
DOI: 10.1039/b809539f
Highlight
Recent advances in DEM simulations of grains in a rotating drum
Patrick Richard and Nicolas Taberlet,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1345
DOI: 10.1039/b717129c
This highlight reviews recent numerical works on axial segregation of a binary granular mixture in a rotating drum (or tumbler) and attempts to show what knowledge is gained from DEM numerical simulations.
Review Articles
Control of dynamic helicity at the macro- and supramolecular level
Dirk Pijper and Ben L. Feringa,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1349
DOI: 10.1039/b801886c
This review describes various systems developed in recent years designed to allow control of their dynamic helical organization at both the macro- and supramolecular level, ranging from columnar aggregates to helical polymers and cholesteric liquid crystals.
Mechanical regulation of cell adhesion
Julia Schmitz and Kay-Eberhard Gottschalk,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1373
DOI: 10.1039/b716805p
This review summarizes concepts about the mechanical regulation of cell adhesion, which provides an additional adhesion regulation mechanism besides affinity or avidity regulation.
Communications
Highly anisotropic vorticity aligned structures in a shear thickening attractive colloidal system
Chinedum O. Osuji and David A. Weitz,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1388
DOI: 10.1039/b716324j
Deformation of shear thickening colloidal gels produced by abrupt flow rate quenches is highlighted by the formation of transient, highly anisotropic vorticity aligned structures that rapidly form and then disaggregate with continued shear flow.
Self-assembly of amphiphilic calix[6]crowns: from vesicles to nanotubes
Bing Guan, Ming Jiang, Xiaogang Yang, Qing Liang and Yuanyin Chen,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1393
DOI: 10.1039/b805312j
Upon an increase of the medium polarity, the morphology of the aggregates of calix[6]crowns TAC evolves from vesicles to the coexistence of vesicles and nanotubles, and finally to nanotubes only.
Clusters, columns, and lamellae—minimum energy configurations in core softened potentials
Gernot J. Pauschenwein and Gerhard Kahl,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1396
DOI: 10.1039/b806147e
Colloidal particles interacting via simple, radially symmetric potentials are able to self-organise in a broad variety of lattices, ranging from highly complex, low-symmetry to compact, high-symmetry structures.
Room-temperature fabrication of nanotexture in crystalline poly(fluoroalkyl acrylate) thin film
Koji Honda, Masamichi Morita and Atsushi Takahara,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1400
DOI: 10.1039/b803076f
Imprinting of nanotexture onto poly(fluoroalkyl acrylate) film with crystalline fluoroalkyl side groups was successfully achieved at room temperature. The resulting nano-textured film exhibited anisotropic wetting behavior.
Papers
Interfacial instabilities in a microfluidic Hele-Shaw cell
Michinao Hashimoto, Piotr Garstecki, Howard A. Stone and George M. Whitesides,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1403
DOI: 10.1039/b715867j
This paper describes surfactant-sensitive, dynamic instabilities and formation of patterns that occur to aqueous droplets translating in a flow of a continuous organic liquid in a microfluidic Hele-Shaw cell (HSC).
Thermal stability, mechanical properties and water content of bacterial protein layers recrystallized on polyelectrolyte multilayers
Mihaela Delcea, Rumen Krastev, Thomas Gutberlet, Dietmar Pum, Uwe Bernd Sleytr and José Luis Toca-Herrera,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1414
DOI: 10.1039/b719408k
Recrystallized S-layers on polyelectrolyte multilayers lose their nanostructure at 55 °C. We have determined the adsorbed protein mass, the mechanical properties of the protein layer and the water volume fraction in the hybrid system.
Micro-stratified architectures based on successive stacking of alginate gel layers and poly(L-lysine)–hyaluronic acid multilayer films aimed at tissue engineering
Hajare Mjahed, Claudine Porcel, Bernard Senger, Armelle Chassepot, Patrick Netter, Pierre Gillet, Gero Decher, Jean-Claude Voegel, Pierre Schaaf, Nadia Benkirane-Jessel and Fouzia Boulmedais,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1422
DOI: 10.1039/b801428k
Micro-stratified 3D architecture obtained by stacking of alginate gel layers and poly(L-lysine)–hyaluronic acid (PLL–HA) multilayer films, respectively, aimed at being scaffolds for cell culture and reservoirs for biologically active molecules.
Pentapeptide based organogels: the role of adjacently located phenylalanine residues in gel formation
Arijit Banerjee, Goutam Palui and Arindam Banerjee,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1430
DOI: 10.1039/b802205b
This new finding illustrates the presence of two adjacently located phenylalanine residues in oligopeptide based gel formation indicating the necessity of 
– interaction in gelation.
Thermal fluctuations of fibrin fibres at short time scales
Marcus Jahnel, Thomas A. Waigh and Jian R. Lu,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1438
DOI: 10.1039/b802555j
The dynamics of branch points within networks of semi-flexible polymers illustrates the potential of ultra-fast imaging with optical microscopy combined with particle tracking analysis. Can the micromechanics of fibrin clots be placed on rigorous molecular foundations?
Dynamics of swollen gel layers anchored to solid surfaces
Maria Gianneli, Robert F. Roskamp, Ulrich Jonas, Benoit Loppinet, George Fytas and Wolfgang Knoll,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1443
DOI: 10.1039/b801468j
Dynamic micro light scattering is used to probe anisotropically swollen PNIPAAm gel layers of thickness <10 
m anchored to solid surfaces. Distinctly different behavior from conventional 3D gels is observed.
Enhanced fluorescence in electrospun dye-doped DNA nanofibers
Yogesh Ner, James G. Grote, Jeffrey A. Stuart and Gregory A. Sotzing,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1448
DOI: 10.1039/b717581g
A scalable technique to produce DNA-based nanofibers is demonstrated. The higher surface area, confined nanofiber geometry, and the DNA–fluorophore complex interact synergistically to enhance the fluorescence of dye-doped nanofibers as compared to cast films.
Fabrication of well-defined block copolymer nano-cylinders by controlling the thermodynamics and kinetics involved in block copolymer self-assembly
Dae Up Ahn and Erol Sancaktar,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1454
DOI: 10.1039/b801515e
Without any external field applications, well-aligned parallel and perpendicular block copolymer nano-cylinders were spontaneously achieved on preferential substrates, mainly by enthalpic control of intermolecular affinity between the homopolymer and its corresponding block component.
Nanopatterning of thin polymer films by controlled dewetting on a topographic pre-pattern
Bokyung Yoon, Himadri Acharya, Geuntak Lee, Ho-Cheol Kim, June Huh and Cheolmin Park,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1467
DOI: 10.1039/b800121a
An ordered nanopattern with approximately 70 nm spherical cap domains is obtained on a topographically pre-patterned substrate by controlled dewetting of a polystyrene thin film upon spin coating and subsequent thermal annealing.
Complex coacervate core micro-emulsions
B. Hofs, A. de Keizer, S. van der Burgh, F. A. M. Leermakers, M. A. Cohen Stuart, P.-E. Millard and A. H. E. Müller,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1473
DOI: 10.1039/b802148a
Complex coacervate core micro-emulsions are made and their growth is analysed as a function of the amount of extra core-forming material (stoichiometric amounts of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes).
Engineering the oil binding capacity and crystallinity of self-assembled fibrillar networks of 12-hydroxystearic acid in edible oils
Michael A. Rogers, Amanda J. Wright and Alejandro G. Marangoni,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1483
DOI: 10.1039/b803299h
The relationship between the structure and oil binding capacity of edible oil organogels is shown in this work. Annealing temperature influences gel pore size, and crystallinity which directly influences oil binding capacity.
Ground states of colloidal molecular crystals on periodic substrates
Samir El Shawish, Jure Dobnikar and Emmanuel Trizac,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1491
DOI: 10.1039/b801907j
Two-dimensional suspensions of spherical colloids subject to periodic external fields exhibit a rich variety of molecular crystalline phases. We numerically study the ground state configurations of dimeric and trimeric systems that are realized on square and triangular lattices.
Tuning swelling pH and permeability of hydrogel multilayer capsules
Veronika Kozlovskaya, Alexei Shamaev and Svetlana A. Sukhishvili,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1499
DOI: 10.1039/b719952j
Swelling pH transitions and permeability of cross-linked hydrogel capsules derived from hydrogen-bonded multilayers can be tuned over a wide pH range by changing the hydrophobicity of self-assembled polymers; such tuning can be useful for biomedical applications
The use of scanning polarization force microscopy to study the miscibility of a molecular wire candidate and an insulating fatty acid in mixed LB films
Ana Villares, Santiago Martín, Ignacio Giner, Jordi Díaz, Donocadh P. Lydon, Paul J. Low and Pilar Cea,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1508
DOI: 10.1039/b716798a
Mixed Langmuir–Blodgett films of a 
molecular wire
candidate and an insulating fatty acid have been prepared, and the molecular distribution in the films probed using scanning polarization force microscopy.
Injection and transport of bacteria in nanotube–vesicle networks
Johan Hurtig and Owe Orwar,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1515
DOI: 10.1039/b800333e
A bacterial microinjection application offering new possibilities for live matter functionalization into synthetic host lipid networks and facilitating studies of the effect of compartmentalization on a single bacterium.
Direct measurement of forces between cell-coating polymers and chiral crystal surfaces: the enantioselectivity of hyaluronan
Lei Jiang, Simon Titmuss, Andrew Cowley and Jacob Klein,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1521
DOI: 10.1039/b717940e
Direct measurements of forces between hyaluronan (HA), a pericellular polysaccharide, and calcium tartrate crystals reveals an enantiomorphic selectivity (consistent with cell adhesion studies), tentatively explained by a simple interaction model.
On the origin of the remarkable stability of aqueous foams stabilised by nanoparticles: link with microscopic surface properties
A. Cervantes Martinez, E. Rio, G. Delon, A. Saint-Jalmes, D. Langevin and B. P. Binks,
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1531
DOI: 10.1039/b804177f
Foams stabilised by nanoparticles do not coarsen (see images, both taken after 3 h; scale bar 1 mm); we propose that this is due to the inhibiting effect of surface elasticity.
Back matter
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1536
DOI: 10.1039/b809540j
Back cover
Soft Matter, 2008, 4, 1539
DOI: 10.1039/b809538h
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