Abstracts

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Invited speakers

Stefano Sacanna (NYU) (10:30 - 11:15)
Harnessing Coulombic Forces to Guide Colloidal Self-Assembly
No abstract provided.
Simone Ruggeri (WUR) (11:15 - 11:45)
Multimodal Nano-Chemical, -Mechanical and -Morphological Analysis of Soft and Heterogeneous Biomolecular systems
No abstract provided.
Daniel Tam (TUD) (13:30 - 14:00)
Tracking flows at soft and active biological interfaces
Biology is wet and active. On the micron-scale, the complex interactions at the interfaces between fluids and soft, deformable biological matter give rise to unexpected fluid mechanics. We use recently developed optical tools, from optical tweezers to multiview microscopy to unravel surprising fluid mechanics at biological interfaces, from biological membranes to motile organisms.
Shibo Zou (AMOLF) (14:00 - 14:15)
Can a soft actuator be a sensor?
No abstract provided.
Charley Schaefer (York) (14:15 - 14:30)
Modelling the Flow-Induced Self-Assembly of Native Silk Proteins
Silk fibres have an out-of-equilibrium semi-crystalline structure that emerges in response to shear and extensional flow. This process of natural silk spinning requires orders of magnitude less energy input than for the industrial spinning of synthetic polymer fibres. By applying the sticky-reptation model to linear viscoelastic data of the silk solution, we discovered that the dynamical response of the disordered protein is akin to that of an associating entangled polymer [Macromolecules 2020]. To understand how this class of polymers responds to strong flow, we developed a coarse-grained (quasi-)single-chain model that describes the intermolecular reversible crosslinks in an effective environment. Through simulations, and supported by analytical approximations, we found that the stochastic opening and closing of reversible crosslinks leads to the emergence of highly disperse dynamical chain conformations [PRL 2021]. We found that the fraction of highly stretched chain segments, which are needed to nucleate crystals, is finely controlled and optimised by both the molecular design of the polymer and by the flow field [J. Rheol 2022]. We aim to exploit these new insights to improve the widely used process of industrial flow-induced crystallisation. Further, by studying protein dynamics in `membraneless organelles' we are exploring how different chemical-reaction mechanisms control the dynamics of macroscopic phenomena such as (viscoelastic) liquid-liquid phase separation.
Silke Henkes (UL) (15:30 - 16:00)
Modelling soft active materials from the bottom up
Soft materials, such as colloids or granular packings, and living materials like tissues or cytoskeletal networks share fundamental properties: They are made from mesoscale individual elements that produce disordered assemblies, and they are driven internally or externally, I will give an overview of my current research activities. On the biological side, this includes both particle and vertex-based models of epithelial cell sheets, with an emphasis on correctly modelling local activity and its elastic interaction with the material. On the soft side, I will talk about active materials on curved surfaces and their interesting topological properties.
Vincent Debets (TUe) (16:00 - 16:15)
Competing Length Scales in Active Glassy Matter
Active glassy matter, i.e., dense disordered materials composed of self-propelling particles, is gaining widespread interest due to its remarkable similarity with conventional colloidal glasses. Controversially, however, there is still no consensus on the seemingly simple question how the activity affects the glassy dynamics. In multiple recent studies, covering a wide array of materials, different conflicting results have been reported – ranging from a monotonic speedup or slowdown of the dynamics to even nonmonotonic changes upon increased activity. We present, for the first time, a unifying rationale for the seemingly conflicting views on the departure from equilibrium. Specifically, we identify the cage length, i.e., the length scale of local particle caging, as the key and unifying control parameter for active glassy matter. Our work considers a broad variety of active (thermal and athermal) particles with different particle-particle interactions; we unambiguously demonstrate that in all cases the cage length controls the non-monotonic change in glassy dynamics upon increased activity. This insight, which we also explain via a simple intuitive argument, allows us to resolve and unite all previous findings and demonstrates that, despite its inherent non-equilibrium nature and broad versatility, there is surprisingly strong universality present in dense active matter.

V. E. Debets, X. M. de Wit, and L. M. C. Janssen, “Cage Length Controls the Nonmonotonic Dynamics of Active Glassy Matter”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 127, 278002 (2021).
Olfa D'Angelo (UvA + FAU) (16:15 - 16:30)
The manifold rheology of granular fluids
The variety in granular materials’ behaviour makes them a fascinatingly counterintuitive material, but also one that is difficult to encompass into a globalised theory. Recently, Kranz et al. described granular fluids close to the glass transition using mode coupling theory (MCT), and extended this theory towards the non-linear rheology of such granular fluids under shear [1]. This approach embraces in a single theoretical framework the variety in rheological response of dense granular fluids: it predicts and delineates rheological regimes comprising Newtonian, shear thinning, and shear thickening (Bagnoldian).

We provide the first experimental validation of this theory [2], through flow curves spanning six orders of magnitude in shear rate, and over a wide range of packing fractions. As we uncover the predicted rheological regimes in an air-fluidised granular bed of glass beads, we explore the areas of uncertainties in comparing our careful measurements to the theory.

[1] W. T. Kranz, F. Frahsa, A. Zippelius, M. Fuchs, and M. Sperl, Integration throughtransients for inelastic hard sphere fluids, Physical Review Fluids, vol. 5, p. 024305, 2020.
[2] O. D’Angelo, A. Shetty, M. Sperl, and W. T. Kranz, 2022, in preparation.

Soundbites

Roshan Akdar Mohamed Yunus from University of Groningen:
Gelation of multi-armed polyelectrolyte micelles
Georgy Filonenko from TU Delft:
Are we managing stress in the right way?
Marine le Blay from Leiden Unviersity:
Repulsive torques alone trigger crystallization of constant speed active particles
Abinaya Arunachalam from University of Groningen:
Biomimicry of Plant Trichomes with Polyelectrolyte Complexation
Nico Schramma from University of Amsterdam:
Glass-like motion in Plant Cells
Ali Azadbakht from Leiden University:
Membrane-mediated interaction between colloidal model inclusions
Mengmeng Zhang from TU Delft:
Sense humidity with caseinate bilayer film
Mannus Schomaker from AMOLF:
Decentralized control of modular soft robots
Yanyan Liu from TU Delft:
Diffusion across particle-laden interfaces in Pickering emulsions
Alberto Comoretto from AMOLF:
Smart fluidic circuits for autonomous soft robots
Rory Claydon from University of Leiden:
The effect of bacterial adhesion on colony morphology
Utku Gürel from University of Groningen:
Unsupervised Machine Learning in 2D Glasses
Felix Frey from TU Delft:
Gain and loss of membrane area during cell division
Yuri Sinzato from Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute/University of Amsterdam:
Dynamics of cyanobacterial colonies under turbulent shear flows
Jan Siemen Smink from Universiteit Twente:
Generalized strategy for power minimization in branched fluidic networks for multiple flow regimes
Luisa Orozco from eScience center:
Machine Learning for physics based simulations
Laura van Hazendonk from Eindhoven University of Technology:
Colloidal graphene-based inks for screen printed stretchable conductors
Marloes Bistervels from AMOLF:
Light-Directed Self-Assembly
Yavuz Emre Kamis from TU Delft:
Controlling the breakup of spiralling jets for prilling process
Silvana Caipa from TU Delft:
Hematite micro-swimmers with enhanced photo activity- A research on active colloids with switchable interactions
Julio Melio from Leiden University:
Flexible colloidal lattices
Bo van Schie from Utrecht University:
Ultrasonication-induced shape shifting in mixed Ca-Fe(III) pyrophosphate particles
Prasansha Rastogi from University of Twente:
Direct Bubble Writing of Foams
Irene Piergentili from TU Delft:
ROS-responsive thioanisole ester based micelles for drug delivery
Stefano Onofri from University of Twente:
Numerical simulations of liquid bridges between colloids
Qi An from TU Delft:
Droplets on electrowetting-functionalized fibers
Mohammad Fazelzadeh from UvA:
Inertial Tangentially Driven Active Polymers