Printed Active Liquids

POSTER

Abstract

We present printed, all-liquid, water/oil and water/water systems. Our constructs are structured by the assembly of nanoparticles and polymers at the liquid-liquid interface. The insoluble layers that these assemblies form have significant, highly tunable shear moduli (order 0.1-10 N/m) that can be used to structure liquid-liquid systems into a wealth of shapes. We cover the materials used to generate these threads, namely polyelectrolytes, nanoparticles and, nanoparticle surfactants. Finally, we discuss the encapsulation of active and living systems in the printed constructs, most notably colonies of Geobacter Sulferreducens and dispersions of active tubulin filaments that are rendered motile by ATP-consuming molecular motors. Of particular interest is the effect of the soft confining walls of the tubules on both the coherence of the motion of the tubulin filaments, as well as the deformation modes of the printed structures due to the motion of the active rods.

*This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under Contract No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231 within the Adaptive Interfacial Assemblies Towards Structuring Liquids program (KCTR16).

Presenters

  • Joe Forth

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Authors

  • Joe Forth

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Anju Toor

    • Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
    • Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Xubo Liu

    • College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology
    • Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science, Beijing University of Chemical Technology

  • Jaffar Hasnain

    • Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
    • UC Berkeley

  • Ganhua Xie

    • Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Derek Lovley

    • Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Zvonimir Dogic

    • UCSB
    • Dept. of Physics, UCSB
    • Brandeis University
    • Materials Science Department, University of California, Santa Barbara
    • Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara

  • Phillip Geissler

    • University of California, Berkeley
    • Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
    • UC Berkeley

  • Brett Helms

    • The Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
    • Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
    • Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Thomas Russell

    • Univ of Mass - Amherst
    • Polymer Science and Engineering, Univ of Mass - Amherst
    • Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
    • UMass Amherst