Fluids articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Coacervate-based compartments are attractive as potential protocells, but formation and control of the compartments can be challenging. Here, the authors report the spontaneous formation of core-shell, cell-sized coacervate compartments driven by droplet evaporation.

    • Cheng Qi
    • , Xudong Ma
    •  & Zhou Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Under strong surface or geometric constraints, achiral nematic liquid crystals can form chiral structures. Using pressure driven flow, Zhang et al. show a pathway to mirror symmetry breaking that does not require such constraints and that occurs in nematic lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals.

    • Qing Zhang
    • , Weiqiang Wang
    •  & Irmgard Bischofberger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pumping fluids at small scales near fluid-fluid interfaces remains challenging. Pandey et al. present a pump that drives interfacial flow by traveling waves on a deformable boundary.

    • Anupam Pandey
    • , Zih-Yin Chen
    •  & Sunghwan Jung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dielectric colloids suspended in a weak electrolyte and energized by a static electric field called Quincke rollers are the model system to study active matter. Zhang et al. report the formation of spontaneous shockwaves in the colloidal Quincke rollers under the temporal activity modulations.

    • Bo Zhang
    • , Andreas Glatz
    •  & Alexey Snezhko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Liquid–liquid phase separation is known in cell biology as an underlying mechanism of intracellular organization. The authors study a complex interplay between phase separation, network mechanics, and condensate capillarity, providing explanation for the phenomena in complex environments like the cellular interior.

    • Jason X. Liu
    • , Mikko P. Haataja
    •  & Rodney D. Priestley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The behaviour of ions solvated in water is highly ion-specific. Introducing a length scale that captures the interplay between ion-water and inter-water interactions, along with considering the bond-orientational order of the hydration shell, provides an explanation for the ion-specific effects observed in salt solutions.

    • Rui Shi
    • , Anthony J. Cooper
    •  & Hajime Tanaka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing efficient separation methods for oily wastewater holds significant global importance. In this study, the authors combine supewettability and bio-inspired topological structures to demonstrate a dual-bionic superwetting gear system with liquid directional steering to achieve oil-water separation.

    • Zhuoxing Liu
    • , Zidong Zhan
    •  & Zhichao Dong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    “Due to the inherent disorder and fluidity of water, machining of water through laser cutting is challenging. Here, authors report a strategy through laser cutting to realize the machining of nanoparticle encased water pancakes with the depth of water at sub-millimeter level.”

    • Jicheng Niu
    • , Wenjing Liu
    •  & Fei Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The collective nature of reorientational dynamics in water remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show that large angular fluctuations require a highly cooperative dynamics involving correlated motion of many water molecules in the hydrogen-bond network that form spatially connected clusters.

    • Adu Offei-Danso
    • , Uriel N. Morzan
    •  & Asja Jelic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crystalline solids are commonly associated with their hard and faceted nature. Here, the authors report the transition from hard to soft and deformable, observed in the gradual dissolution of salt crystals that harbor water in their crystalline framework.

    • Rozeline Wijnhorst
    • , Menno Demmenie
    •  & Noushine Shahidzadeh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biomolecular condensates with internal structure allow cells to further organise their processes. In this work the authors investigate how condensates can obtain an internal structure with droplets of dilute phase inside via kinetic, rather than purely thermodynamic driving forces.

    • Nadia A. Erkamp
    • , Tomas Sneideris
    •  & Tuomas P. J. Knowles

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ferrofluids with their extreme deformability are being used as soft machines. Using ferrofluids, Sun et al. show a variety of soft machines by playing with the wetting properties of solid surfaces

    • Mengmeng Sun
    • , Bo Hao
    •  & Li Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The boundary of conventional liquid crystals is known to anchor the orientational field of the passive materials under equilibrium conditions. Here, the authors show an active nematic to develop active boundary layers that topologically polarize the confining walls regardless of the wall curvature.

    • Jerôme Hardoüin
    • , Claire Doré
    •  & Francesc Sagués

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The phase separation in the coacervates of adhesive muscle foot proteins is not fully understood. Here, the authors use simulations and point mutations of a mussel foot derived protein to show that hydrogen bonding is essential in the formation of coacervates in sea water which can help develop underwater adhesives.

    • Qi Guo
    • , Guijin Zou
    •  & Jing Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The digital transformation and Industry 4.0 technologies are rapidly shaping the future of manufacturing. Here, authors use reliable big data to quantitatively evaluate lubricants performance and select desirable candidates for application in target manufacturing processes.

    • Xiao Yang
    • , Heli Liu
    •  & Liliang Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spontaneous droplet jumping and control of dropwise condensation are relevant for water-harvesting, heat transfer and anti-frosting applications. The authors design a superhydrophobic surface with microscale thin-walled lattice structure to achieve effective jumping of droplets with specified radius range.

    • Chen Ma
    • , Li Chen
    •  & Quanshui Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While liquid-liquid interface offers better contact and charge transfer potential than solid-based counterparts, fluidity still poses challenges for their application. Here, authors show that charge transfer exists in aqueous two-phase systems and propose a nanogenerator design based on the immiscible aqueous-aqueous interface.

    • Ye Lu
    • , Longlong Jiang
    •  & Xiaoxiong Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biological and artificial microswimmers often navigate channels under external flow, where in many biomicroswimmers the active upstream motion is oscillatory. Here the authors demonstrate that regular, controllable, and reproducible oscillatory rheotaxis can be observed in artificial microswimmers.

    • Ranabir Dey
    • , Carola M. Buness
    •  & Corinna C. Maass

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemically propelled micropumps are wireless fluid flow driving systems with many potential applications. Here, the authors report a self-driven reusable Nafion micropump fueled by different salt cations in a wide range of concentrations that triggers both radial and unidirectional flows, showing efficient water remediation capabilities.

    • María J. Esplandiu
    • , David Reguera
    •  & Jordi Fraxedas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exploring the interactions between liquids and solids is critical for improving control over fluidic systems. Here, authors develop an active way to tailor various polygonal shapes of non-wetting droplet on microtextured surfaces, resulting from the anisotropic energy barriers of the contact line.

    • Jing Lou
    • , Songlin Shi
    •  & Cunjing Lv

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Investigating and tailoring the thermodynamic properties of different fluids is crucial to many applied fields such as energy and refrigeration cycles. Here, authors use multistable, gas filled, particles suspension to enhance the macro-properties of thermodynamic fluids.

    • Ofek Peretz
    • , Ezra Ben Abu
    •  & Amir D. Gat

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The dynamic process behind the low-speed drop-impact erosion remains challenging to understand. Cheng et al. develop a method of high-speed microscopy, revealing the fast propagation of self-similar stress maxima underneath impacting drops and the formation of surface waves on impacted substrates.

    • Ting-Pi Sun
    • , Franco Álvarez-Novoa
    •  & Xiang Cheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tailoring the macroscopic properties of deep eutectic solvents requires knowing how these depend on the local structure and microscopic dynamics. The authors, with computational and experimental tools spanning a wide range of space- and timescales, shed light into the relationship between micro and macroscopic properties in glyceline and ethaline.

    • Stephanie Spittle
    • , Derrick Poe
    •  & Joshua Sangoro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Jumping is an important locomotion function to extend navigation range, overcome obstacles, and adapt to unstructured environments. Here, authors demonstrate legless soft robot capable of rapid, continuous, and steered jumping based on a soft electrohydrostatic bending actuator.

    • Rui Chen
    • , Zean Yuan
    •  & Yu Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Techniques to alter the surface of materials to enable transport of fluids have advanced considerably, but dynamic microdroplet transport remains a challenge. Here, the authors report the fabrication of microtextured chemical gradients on elastomer films and their use in controlled microdroplet transport.

    • Ali J. Mazaltarim
    • , John J. Bowen
    •  & Stephen A. Morin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The dynamics of droplet impact and splash is important in many applications, yet its analysis involves difficult intertwined aspects. Here Liu et al. make shape parametrically accessible to experiment, with ferrofluidic drops passing a magnetic field in a defined way.

    • Qingzhe Liu
    • , Jack Hau Yung Lo
    •  & Lei Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Utilizing soft pumps in soft robotics is an attractive approach to endow untethered soft robots with muscle-like actuation. Here, the authors report bio-inspired soft electronic pumps as driving power sources to drive actuation and self-healing in untethered soft robotics.

    • Wei Tang
    • , Chao Zhang
    •  & Jun Zou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multi-emulsion droplets may lead to improved designs of soft materials or drug formulations. Tiribocchi et al. show that in typical situations expected during microfluidic post-processing, the dynamical distribution of emulsified droplets is dictated by the internal vortices of the host droplet.

    • A. Tiribocchi
    • , A. Montessori
    •  & D. A. Weitz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological phenomena appear in non-Hermitian systems but the fundamental principles of the edge modes remain less understood. Here, Sone et al. report robust gapless edge modes due to topological structure around an exceptional point rather than bulk-edge correspondence.

    • Kazuki Sone
    • , Yuto Ashida
    •  & Takahiro Sagawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tactoids are liquid crystal droplets with nearly vanishing interfacial tension. Almohammadi et al. show using a microfluidic focusing device how to manipulate them gently enough to facilitate the study of amyloid liquid crystal phase transitions subject to non-equilibirum forcing and shape changes.

    • Hamed Almohammadi
    • , Massimo Bagnani
    •  & Raffaele Mezzenga

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is interesting phenomenon that chiral order can emerge in intrinsically achiral liquid crystals. Here Čopar et al. demonstrate achiral-to-chiral transition of the nematic liquid crystals flow in microfluidic channels and their behaviour, stability, and dependence on geometric and material parameters.

    • Simon Čopar
    • , Žiga Kos
    •  & Uroš Tkalec

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Swimming bacteria perform collective motion at high cell density, yet it is unclear how this behaviour affects their ability to follow substance gradients in the environment. Here, Colin et al. address this question by studying motion of Escherichia coli in controlled chemical gradients.

    • Remy Colin
    • , Knut Drescher
    •  & Victor Sourjik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It remains peculiar how to generate macroscopic work by harnessing the microscopic activity of living or synthetic agents like bacteria or micro-robots. Vincenti et al. show a biological rotary motor by self-assembling magnetotactic bacteria inside a droplet, producing a net torque on the droplet surface.

    • Benoit Vincenti
    • , Gabriel Ramos
    •  & Eric Clement

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Though liquid sensing platforms are highly sought after for emerging biomedical applications, current technology is limited in its capacity to directly sense and store information. Here, the authors report a sensing memory platform that senses, monitors, and stores information on various liquids.

    • Jong Sung Kim
    • , Eui Hyuk Kim
    •  & Cheolmin Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While the physics of freezing water droplets are known, it is less known how bubbles freeze. The authors investigate the physics of freezing soap bubbles and identify two distinct freezing modes, depending on whether the surroundings are warmer or colder than the melting temperature.

    • S. Farzad Ahmadi
    • , Saurabh Nath
    •  & Jonathan B. Boreyko

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of functional microrobots calls for new strategies to design locomotion facilitating navigation through complex environments. Here, Lee et al. show how to realize and program helical motion in three dimensions using patchy microspheres under an alternating current electric field.

    • Jin Gyun Lee
    • , Allan M. Brooks
    •  & Bhuvnesh Bharti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    When bees carry pollen, it sticks to their legs and it can be carried without being dropped in a range of different humidity conditions. Here the authors find that the adhesive holding the pollen together consists of two phases and the oily phase stabilizes the aqueous phase with respect to humidity changes.

    • Donglee Shin
    • , Won Tae Choi
    •  & J. Carson Meredith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Surfaces with adsorbed and arrested colloids are of interest for the engineering of advanced mesostructured materials. Here the authors demonstrate a method for producing particle-stabilised droplets with controlled surface coverage and composition.

    • Greet Dockx
    • , Steffen Geisel
    •  & Jan Vermant

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bubbles tend to burst and retract into droplets. Here the authors show how a droplet can be turned into a bubble by levitating the droplets acoustically and exploiting their buckling to form gas bubbles.

    • Duyang Zang
    • , Lin Li
    •  & Xingguo Geng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generating artificial cells able to carry out metabolic activities out-of-equilibrium is a current challenge in synthetic biology. Here the authors use a microfluidic platform for integration and analysis of minimal metabolic reactions in artificial microcompartments formed of water-in-oil droplets.

    • Thomas Beneyton
    • , Dorothee Krafft
    •  & Jean-Christophe Baret

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The penetration dynamics of solid objects into granular media has been described by theories that are constrained to the use of phenomenological models or empirical parameters. Here, Kang et al. propose and test a parameter-free model for the dependence of the resistance force on penetration depth.

    • Wenting Kang
    • , Yajie Feng
    •  & Raphael Blumenfeld

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active chiral fluids are a special case of active matter in which energy is introduced into rotational motion via local application of torque. Here Banerjee et al. develop a hydrodynamic theory of such active fluids and connect it with odd viscosity which was previously considered an abstract concept.

    • Debarghya Banerjee
    • , Anton Souslov
    •  & Vincenzo Vitelli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Emulsions—stabilized mixtures of immiscible liquids—are found in many products, ranging from pharmaceuticals to food. Here Guha et al. propose a simple emulsification method where water vapor is condensed onto oil with surfactant, producing a water-in-oil emulsion with droplets as small as 100 nm.

    • Ingrid F. Guha
    • , Sushant Anand
    •  & Kripa K. Varanasi

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