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Characterization and Mechanics of Soft Materials

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Soft Matter".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2023) | Viewed by 2420

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Solid State Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: soft matter physics; lyotropic liquid crystals; membrane biophysics; mechanical and electrical properties of lipid membranes; thermal shape fluctuations of lipid membranes; micromanipulation of liposomes and cells; red blood cells; blood rheology

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Guest Editor
Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
Interests: membrane biophysics and biochemistry; membrane organization; membrane curvature and vesicle docking; teratology and lipids; lipid–lipid and lipid–protein interactions; bio-inspired model membranes, lipid phases and phase separation; biophysics of cell–cell and cell–material interactions; biosensors; enzymes; oxidation of soft matter

Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

The versatility in structure and physicochemical characteristics renders soft materials indispensable in a wide range of technological applications. The unique properties featuring the ability to sustain large elastic deformations, the sensitivity of equilibrium structures to external conditions, the responsitivity to electric fields, etc. underlie the successful design and fabrication of new soft materials. The fundamental insight and observations on the behavior of soft biological materials contribute to fostering the conception of novel tools in biomedicine and pharmacology. With a particular focus on the interface between physics, chemical engineering, and biology, research achievements in soft materials are expected to answer numerous challenging questions from theoretical, as well as from experimental points of view.

In this Special Issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944), entitled “Characterization and Mechanics of Soft Materials”, we invite original research articles and review papers in soft materials science and engineering, encouraging experimental, theoretical, and computational soft matter approaches.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

  • Lyotropic mesophases
  • Soft nanocomposites
  • Biomimetic soft materials
  • Liquid interfaces and membranes
  • Colloid delivery systems
  • Biomembrane mechanics and stability
  • Rheology of complex fluids
  • Active suspensions
  • Modeling of soft materials

Prof. Dr. Victoria Vitkova
Prof. Dr. Galya Staneva
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Lyotropic mesophases
  • Soft nanocomposites
  • Biomimetic soft materials
  • Liquid interfaces and membranes
  • Colloid delivery systems
  • Biomembrane mechanics and stability
  • Rheology of complex fluids
  • Active suspensions
  • Modeling of soft materials

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

22 pages, 2477 KiB  
Review
Heterogeneity in Lateral Distribution of Polycations at the Surface of Lipid Membrane: From the Experimental Data to the Theoretical Model
by Rodion J. Molotkovsky, Timur R. Galimzyanov and Yury A. Ermakov
Materials 2021, 14(21), 6623; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ma14216623 - 03 Nov 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1655
Abstract
Natural and synthetic polycations of different kinds attract substantial attention due to an increasing number of their applications in the biomedical industry and in pharmacology. The key characteristic determining the effectiveness of the majority of these applications is the number of macromolecules adsorbed [...] Read more.
Natural and synthetic polycations of different kinds attract substantial attention due to an increasing number of their applications in the biomedical industry and in pharmacology. The key characteristic determining the effectiveness of the majority of these applications is the number of macromolecules adsorbed on the surface of biological cells or their lipid models. Their study is complicated by a possible heterogeneity of polymer layer adsorbed on the membrane. Experimental methods reflecting the structure of the layer include the electrokinetic measurements in liposome suspension and the boundary potential of planar bilayer lipid membranes (BLM) and lipid monolayers with a mixed composition of lipids and the ionic media. In the review, we systematically analyze the methods of experimental registration and theoretical description of the laterally heterogeneous structures in the polymer layer published in the literature and in our previous studies. In particular, we consider a model based on classical theory of the electrical double layer, used to analyze the available data of the electrokinetic measurements in liposome suspension with polylysines of varying molecular mass. This model suggests a few parameters related to the heterogeneity of the polymer layer and allows determining the conditions for its appearance at the membrane surface. A further development of this theoretical approach is discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Characterization and Mechanics of Soft Materials)
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