The interaction between Laponite and other constituents in complex systems greatly depends on its available surface area. We report a study of exfoliation dynamics of Laponite in aqueous suspensions by NMR relaxometry. It showed that Laponite particles exfoliate to the same extent in a concentration range of 0.5-3% w/w. Faster increase of specific wetted surface area of Laponite particles in mo...

The ability to tune phagocytosis of particle-based therapeutics by macrophages can enhance their delivery to macrophages or reduce their phagocytic susceptibility for delivery to non-phagocytic cells. Since phagocytosis is affected by the physical and chemical properties of particles, it is crucial to identify any interplay between physical properties of particles in altering phagocytic interac...

A method for the classification of individual aerosol particles into one of two main groups, namely, fly ash and soil dust, is presented. It is based on the calculation of the fractal dimensions of the images of the particles obtained with the computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy. The risk of an improper determination of the fractal dimension is pointed out. It is shown that spheric...

In this Letter, we give a general description of the illumination and object properties for obtaining total absorption. We show theoretically and numerically that properly designed sub-100 nm metallic particles are able to absorb all the energy of an incident beam if the latter is adequately shaped. In addition to their interest as absorbers, these particles act as efficient near-field probes a...

The precipitation and Ostwald ripening behaviour of V4C3 (plate shaped) particles during the tempering of a ternary Fe – C –V martensitic steel have been characterised and modelled, taking account of local equilibrium, the capillarity effect, and simultaneous cementite enrichment and dissolution. Particles of V4C3 are represented as parabolic cylinders of revolution, with the tip radius chosen ...

To transfer cell- and bead-assays into droplet-based platforms typically requires the use of complex microfluidic circuits, which calls for methods to switch the direction of the encapsulated particles. We present a microfluidic chip where the combination of acoustic manipulation at two different harmonics and a trident-shaped droplet-splitter enables direction-switching of microbeads and yeast...

We study the rheological behavior of concentrated granular suspensions of simple spherical particles. Under controlled stress, the system exhibits an S-shaped flow curve (stress vs shear rate) with a negative slope in between the low-viscosity Newtonian regime and the shear thickened regime. Under controlled shear rate, a discontinuous transition between the two states is observed. Stress visua...

The surface of Gross virus-induced murine lymphoblasts and C-type virus particles budding from these cells were investigated under the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The cells appeared spindle-shaped or roughly-rounded with extensive surface features consisting of microvilli, blebs and ruffled membranes. C-type virus particles were detected on the cell membrane as small spherical particles...

The precipitation and Ostwald ripening behaviour of needle shaped Mo2C particles during the tempering of a ternary Fe –C –Mo martensitic steel have been characterised and modelled, taking account of local equilibrium, the capillarity effect, and the simultaneous enrichment and dissolution of cementite. Particles of Mo2C are represented as paraboloids of revolution, with the tip radius chosen to...

Minkowski operators (dilation and erosion of sets in vector spaces) have been extensively used in computer graphics, image processing to analyze the structure of materials, and more recently in molecular dynamics. Here, we apply those mathematical concepts to extend the discrete element method to simulate granular materials with complex-shaped particles. The Voronoi-Minkowski diagrams are intro...