Coacervates as models of membraneless organelles

Coacervates are condensed liquid-like droplets, usually formed with oppositely charged polymeric molecules. They have been studied extensively in colloid and interface science for their remarkable material properties. The liquid–liquid phase separation underlying coacervate formation also plays an important role in the formation of various membraneless organelles (MLOs) that are found in many living cells. Therefore, there is an increasing interest to use well-characterized coacervates as in vitro models that mimic specific aspects of MLOs. Here, we review five aspects – physical and chemical properties, hierarchical organization, uptake selectivity, formation dynamics, and maturation – that are of particular interest and discuss how useful coacervates are to better understand these aspects of MLOs.     

Collisional dynamics of symmetric two-dimensional quantum droplets

The collisional dynamics of two symmetric droplets with equal intraspecies scattering lengths and particle number density for each component is studied by solving the corresponding extended Gross−Pitaevskii equation in two dimensions by including a logarithmic correction term in the usual contact interaction. We find the merging droplet after collision experiences a quadrupole oscillation in its shape and the oscillation period is found to be independent of the incidental momentum for small droplets. With increasing collision momentum the colliding droplets may separate into two, or even more, and finally into small pieces of droplets. For these dynamical phases we manage to present boundaries determined by the remnant particle number in the central area and the damped oscillation of the quadrupole mode. A stability peak for the existence of droplets emerges at the critical particle numberN_c ≃ 48 for the quasi-Gaussian and flat-top shapes of the droplets.     

单喷嘴横流气雾两相流掺混实验研究

采用PIV设备测量了方腔通道内气体液雾两相交叉横向流的掺混,液滴通过旋流雾化喷嘴产生,获得了沿横流方向不同掺混横截面的液滴分布图和液滴运动流线图.比较了三种喷嘴布置角度(60°,90°,120°)在不同气流速度下的掺混效果.结果表明:在横流作用和壁面约束的影响下,流场中出现不同尺度的漩涡,大涡的卷吸与离心作用导致液滴分布不均匀,影响了雾滴与气相的掺混.随着掺混的发展,大涡的强度和尺寸均减小,对雾滴影响减弱,掺混变好;三种喷嘴布置角度下,60°掺混最好,90°次之,120°最差.     

Microfluidic fabrication of water-in-water droplets encapsulated in hydrogel microfibers

By combining microfiber spinning techniques with aqueous two phase system (ATPS), a rapid and simple strategy to fabricate water-in-water (w/w) droplets encapsulated in microfibers was proposed for the first time. Hydrophilic environment in hydrogel and the fiber format facilitates higher biocompatibility, convenient manipulation of the droplets and recycling of the contents inside droplets, which would have promising development in biological, pharmacological and environmental fields.     

Impact of subgrid fluid turbulence on inertial particles subject to gravity

Two-phase turbulent flows with the dispersed phase in the form of small, spherical particles are increasingly often computed with the large-eddy simulation (LES) of the carrier fluid phase, coupled to the Lagrangian tracking of particles. To enable further model development for LES with inertial particles subject to gravity, we consider direct numerical simulations of homogeneous isotropic turbulence with a large-scale forcing. Simulation results, both without filtering and in the a priori LES setting, are reported and discussed. A full (i.e. a posteriori) LES is also performed with the spectral eddy viscosity. Effects of gravity on the dispersed phase include changes in the average settling velocity due to preferential sweeping, impact on the radial distribution function and radial relative velocity, as well as direction-dependent modification of the particle velocity variance. The filtering of the fluid velocity, performed in spectral space, is shown to have a non-trivial impact on these quantities.     

Abrasive resistance of arc sprayed carbonitride alloying self-shielded coatings

Wear-resistant coatings were prepared on the surface of the Q235 low-carbon steel plate by HVAS with the carbonitride alloying self-shielded flux-cored wire. Detection and analysis on the microstructure and properties of the coatings were carried out by using scanning electron microscope, microhardness tester and wear tester. The forming, the wear resistance and its mechanism of the coatings were studied. The results show that the coatings have good forming, homogeneous microstructure and compact structure. The coatings have good hardness, the average microhardness value reaches 520 HV_0.1, and the highest value is up to about 560 HV_0.1. As a result, the coatings have good abrasive wear performance and adhesion strength.     

聚合物 分散液晶体系的相分离结构对温度依赖性的研究

在不同温度下采用紫外光引发相分离法制备了聚合物分散液晶样品．用光学显微镜及扫描电镜研究了样品的相分离结构．采用对样品施加电压观察其微结构轮廓，或测量液晶微粒相变点的简单方法研究了聚合温度对相分离结果的影响．结果表明，在一定温度范围内，随着温度的增高，液晶微粒的平均尺寸趋于减小，而且形成的液晶微粒也逐渐变纯．作者给出了这些测试结果并进行了讨论．     

Spreading of viscous droplets on a non viscous liquid

Some polymer melts (of high viscosity ) can wet completely the surface of a non miscible, simple liquid. We discuss here the laws of spreading for a macroscopic droplet of this type, when the internal friction of the droplet dominates. We predict a droplet radius increasing liket ^1/4 wheret is the spreading time, or equivalently a droplet curvature decreasing liket ^–1. The droplet should be surrounded by a precursor film, which is not discussed in the present note.     

Wetting of liquid droplets on two parallel filaments

Droplet wetting on two parallel filaments may assume a barrel-shaped morphology or a liquid bridge depending upon the filament diameter and spacing, droplet volume, and contact angle. This paper is aimed to examine the dependency of droplet wetting length upon the above parameters. In the process, morphology of either a barrel-shaped droplet or a liquid bridge sitting on two parallel filaments is determined numerically by using surface finite element method (SFEM). Variation of wetting length with contact angle is examined at varying droplet volume, filament spacing, and droplet morphology. It is found that the droplet wetting length increases with decreasing filament spacing ratio as well as contact angle while it also increases with the growth of droplet volume. The dependency of wetting length upon contact angle behaves sensitive to filament spacing in the case of stable liquid bridges, while it exhibits nearly constant sensitivity to the contact angle in the case of barrel-shaped droplets. The quantitative relations yielded in this study can be considered as characteristic curves applicable for a variety of droplet-on-filament systems, particularly useful to wetting property characterization of filaments, micro liquid delivery, biological cell manipulation, etc.