Scientists squeeze nanocrystals in a liquid droplet into a solid-like state and back again

Science Daily  August 8, 2018
An international team of researchers (USA – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Berkeley, UMass Amherst, Japan) put a droplet of a liquid containing iron oxide nanocrystals into an oily liquid containing tiny polymer strands and cause the nanoparticles assembled here to jam, making it act like a solid, and then to unjam and return to a liquid-like state by the competitive push-pull action of the polymer and the additive. They can control the rate at which this happens through the use of a ligand at a defined concentration and manipulate the properties of the liquid droplets in the oil solution by applying a magnetic field by attracting the iron-containing nanocrystals, for example, and change the tension at the surface of the droplets. The research has implications for developing all-liquid electronics, and for interacting with cells and controlling cellular functions… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE