17 citations · 25 across the 12 of their papers we have counts for
14 papers
Disordered origins, deterministic outcomes: How the architecture of elastic networks imprints relaxed structure and mechanics
Stefanie Heyden, Mohit Pundir, Eric R. Dufresne +1
This work targets the influence of disorder on the relaxed structure and macroscopic mechanical properties of elastic networks. We construct network classes of different types of d…
Controlling polymerization-induced phase separation in the synthesis of porous gels
Yanxia Feng, Noel Ringeisen, Eric R. Dufresne +2
Porous gels -- gels with solvent-filled pores that are much larger than their mesh size -- are widely used in engineering and biomedical applications due to their tunable mechanics…
Could Living Cells Use Phase Transitions to Process Information?
Arvind Murugan, David Zwicker, Charlotta Lorenz +1
To maintain homeostasis, living cells process information with networks of interacting molecules. Traditional models for cellular information processing have focused on networks of…
Thermodynamics of microphase separation in a swollen, strain-stiffening polymer network
Carla Fernández-Rico, Robert W. Style, Stefanie Heyden +3
Elastic MicroPhase Separation (EMPS) provides a simple route to create soft materials with homogeneous microstructures by leveraging the supersaturation of crosslinked polymer netw…
Droplets sliding on soft solids shed elastocapillary rails
Nan Xue, Lawrence A. Wilen, Robert W. Style +1
The surface tension of partially wetting droplets deforms soft substrates. These deformations are usually localized to a narrow region near the contact line, forming a so-called `e…
Unravelling the multiscale surface mechanics of soft solids
Nicolas Bain, Lawrence A. Wilen, Dominic Gerber +7
Soft solids and their surface deformations control the response of many natural and artificial systems. Yet, their underlying properties are vigorously debated, particularly for po…
Characterizing hydrogel behavior under compression with gel-freezing osmometry
Yanxia Feng, Dominic Gerber, Stefanie Heyden +4
Hydrogels are particularly versatile materials that are widely found in both Nature and industry. One key reason for this versatility is their high water content, which lets them d…
Dehydration drives damage in the freezing of brittle hydrogels
Shaohua Yang, Dominic Gerber, Yanxia Feng +6
It is widely known that freezing breaks soft, wet materials. However, the mechanism underlying this damage is still not clear. To understand this process, we freeze model, brittle…
Efficient structural color from pigment-loaded nanostructures
Tianqi Sai, Luis S. Froufe-Pérez, Frank Scheffold +2
Color can originate from wavelength-dependence in the absorption of pigments or the scattering of nanostructures. While synthetic colors are dominated by the former, vivid structur…
Strain-stiffening elastomers fail from the edge
Nan Xue, Rong Long, Eric R. Dufresne +1
The accurate measurement of fracture resistance in elastomers is essential for predicting the mechanical limits of soft devices. Usually, this is achieved by performing tearing or…
Surface Passivation Method for Super-repellence of Aqueous Macromolecular Condensates
Andrea Testa, Hendrik T. Spanke, Etienne Jambon-Puillet +6
Solutions of macromolecules can undergo liquid-liquid phase separation to form droplets with ultra-low surface tension. Droplets with such low surface tension wet and spread over c…
Elastic Microphase Separation Produces Robust Bicontinuous Materials
Carla Fernández-Rico, Sanjay Schreiber, Hamza Oudich +8
Bicontinuous microstructures are essential to the function of diverse natural and synthetic systems. Their synthesis has been based on two approaches: arrested phase separation or…
Hydroelastomers: soft, tough, highly swelling composites
Simon Moser, Yanxia Feng, Oncay Yasa +6
Inspired by the cellular design of plant tissue, we present a new approach to make versatile, tough, highly water-swelling composites. We embed highly swelling hydrogel particles i…
A robust method for quantification of surface elasticity in soft solids
Stefanie Heyden, Petia M. Vlahovska, Eric R. Dufresne
We propose an approach to measure surface elastic constants of soft solids. Generally, this requires one to probe interfacial mechanics at around the elastocapillary length scale,…