5 papers
Dynamical Landau-de Gennes Theory for Electrically-Responsive Liquid Crystal Networks
Guido L. A. Kusters, Inge P. Verheul, Nicholas B. Tito +2
Liquid crystal networks combine the orientational order of liquid crystals with the elastic properties of polymer networks, leading to a vast application potential in the field of…
First-Order "Hyper-selective" Binding Transition of Multivalent Particles Under Force
Tine Curk, Nicholas B. Tito
Multivalent particles bind to targets via many independent ligand-receptor bonding interactions. This microscopic design spans length scales in both synthetic and biological system…
Multivalent "Attacker & Guard" Strategy for Targeting Surfaces with Low Receptor Density
Nicholas B. Tito
Multivalent particles, i.e. microscopic constructs having multiple ligands, can be used to target surfaces selectively depending on their receptor density. Typically, there is a sh…
Harnessing entropy to enhance toughness in reversibly crosslinked polymer networks
Nicholas B. Tito, Costantino Creton, Cornelis Storm +1
Reversible crosslinking is a design paradigm for polymeric materials, wherein they are microscopically reinforced with chemical species that form transient crosslinks between the p…
Simple approach for calculating the binding free energy of a multivalent particle
Nicholas B. Tito, Stefano Angioletti-Uberti, Daan Frenkel
We present a simple yet accurate numerical approach to compute the free energy of binding of multivalent objects on a receptor-coated surface. The method correctly accounts for the…