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Soft Matter
@softmatter.rsc.org

An interdisciplinary journal focusing on innovative soft matter topics through original research and reviews.

Published by @rsc.org 🌐 Website: rsc.li/softmatter-journal
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Nominations for the 2026 Soft Matter Lectureship are now open!

This annual award recognises early career researchers who have made major contributions to soft matter research.

Find out more, including how to nominate, on our webpage 👉 www.rsc.org/standards-an...
We're delighted to announce a call for papers for our special collection on #Biomembranes and #Biointerfaces!

Guest edited by Reinhard Lipowsky and Motomu Tanaka, this collection covers a wide range of topics including....
November 7, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Check out the inside front cover article for issue 41!
'Triacylglycerols affect the water content and cohesive strength of collagen fibrils' led by Martin Dehnert & Robert Magerle et al (Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany)

🔗rsc.li/3WpAV4e

#SoftMatter #ChemSky #🧪
October 24, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Don't miss the front cover article for issue 41!

'Emergence and evolution of a particulate network during gelation and coarsening of attractive #colloids' by Paniz Haghighi, Mohammad Nabizadeh & Safa Jamali (Northeastern University, USA)

🔗rsc.li/3WmmJZS

#ChemSky #SoftMatter
October 24, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Soft Matter
💥RSC CNN Paper of the Week💥

Nanoscale mechanisms of crack-tip evolution in glassy polymers: hybrid particle-continuum simulations

Müller-Plathe* (Technical University of Darmstadt)

Norouzi, Soft Matter, 10.1039/D5SM00853K
@softmatter.rsc.org

#chemsky #nanosky
Nanoscale mechanisms of crack-tip evolution in glassy polymers: hybrid particle-continuum simulations
Understanding nanoscale crack mechanisms in polymers is important for predicting their macroscopic properties. However, high localized stress near the crack tip introduces nonlinear and time-dependent...
pubs.rsc.org
October 20, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Reposted by Soft Matter
In honour of the 2025 #NobelPrize in Chemistry, we’ve curated a collection of impactful articles from across RSC journals on metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) 🏆 Free to read until the end of November 👉 pubs.rsc.org/en/jour...
October 8, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Soft Matter
In honour of the 2025 #NobelPrize in Physiology/Medicine, we’ve curated a collection of impactful articles from across RSC journals on peripheral immune tolerance and regulatory T cells🏆
Free to read until the end of November👉 pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/...
#NobelPrize
October 7, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Nominations for the 2026 Soft Matter Lectureship are now open!

This annual award recognises early career researchers who have made major contributions to soft matter research.

Find out more, including how to nominate, on our webpage 👉 www.rsc.org/standards-an...
October 6, 2025 at 2:25 PM
We're delighted to announce that Ankur Gupta has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 Soft Matter Lectureship!

This award honours an early-career researcher for their contributions to the soft matter field.

Learn more about Ankur and his research on our blog 👉 blogs.rsc.org/sm/2025/09/1...
September 23, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Check out this front cover artwork celebrating the journal's 20th anniversary!

'Turbulent-like flows in quasi two-dimensional dense suspensions of motile colloids' by Rui Luo, Alexey Snezhko & Petia Vlahovska is #OA!

🔗https://rsc.li/4mkWqh3

Explore our milestone collection: rsc.li/3VKmhV3
September 19, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Soft Matter
Do you want to stay ahead of developments in AI and learn first-hand experiences of applying them in your chemistry work?

Join leading experts to discuss best practice tips for working across disciplines.

Register now: https://rsc.li/4m2xzOU

#ChemSky
September 9, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Check out the #OA Perspective, 'Materials science underpinnings of micro and nanoplastics', by our AEs Guruswamy Kumaraswamy & Sanat Kumar et al!

🔗rsc.li/4nbaYRh

Guru & Sanat are Guest Editors of the 'Underpinnings of Micro- and Nanoplastics' themed collection with Tom McDonald: rsc.li/3I5vtQi #🧪
September 3, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Check out this #OA work, 'Photodegradation-driven microparticle release from commercial plastic water bottles' led by Alexander Laskin et al!

🔗https://rsc.li/3JGXVZg

This work is part of Soft Matter's growing 'Underpinnings of Micro- and Nanoplastics' collection: rsc.li/4g03X3r
August 29, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Don't miss this front cover article in celebration of Soft Matter's 20th Anniversary!

Martin Reifarth's review on microscale patterning via microcontact printing is #OA
🔗rsc.li/4oUs5Zd

Read Soft Matter's 20th Anniversary collection for free until December 31st!🎈https://rsc.li/46byQys

#ChemSky #🧪
August 27, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Soft Matter
Our paper about active crystals is now out @softmatter.rsc.org! During the revisions, we added a section about triangular lattices, on which the turn-towards or turn-away interactions can be frustrated. Check it out, and see the post below!

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

bsky.app/profile/rica...
August 27, 2025 at 2:36 PM
We are pleased to present the themed collection Celebrating the 60th birthday and achievements of Professor Ulli Steiner

pubs.rsc.org/en/journals/...

All papers are FREE to read until 30 December 2025!

Read the Editorial introducing the collection
doi.org/10.1039/D5SM...

🧪 #Interfaces #Materials
August 20, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Soft Matter
💥RSC CNN Paper of the Week💥

Surface functional group dependent enthalpic and entropic contributions to molecular adsorption on colloidal microplastics

Subir* (Ball State University)

Kanu, Soft Matter, 10.1039/D5SM00488H
@softmatter.rsc.org

#chemsky #nanosky
Surface functional group dependent enthalpic and entropic contributions to molecular adsorption on colloidal microplastics
Molecular interaction with micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs) is an important chemical process that dictates the fate and transport of organic contaminants, and that of MNPs, within the aquatic environme...
pubs.rsc.org
August 18, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Congratulations to Sujit Datta who officially received the Soft Matter Lectureship 2024 award before giving his talk on living gels formed by bacteria growing in complex fluids!

Find out more about our winner and the Lectureship award: lnkd.in/eVXXQH6n

#ChemSky #🧪
August 19, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Check out the cover article for Soft Matter Issue 32! 'Oxygen deficiency drives drastic pattern transition in algal bioconvection', by Azam Gholami et al (New York University Abu Dhabi, Lewis & Clark College)

🔗https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/sm/d5sm00451a
August 15, 2025 at 5:36 PM
We have now published our 'Outstanding Reviewers for Soft Matter in 2024' Editorial!

You can read the Editorial here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SM...

Thank you to all of our reviewers for helping to preserve quality and integrity in the Soft Matter literature.

🧪 #SoftMatter
August 13, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Our 2024 Lectureship winner Sujit Datta will be formally presented with his award prior to his talk at ACS next week!

Where: Rock Creek Salon A (The Westin DC Downtown), USA
When: 18/08/25, 2-2:50 pm (GMT-4)

Event details: lnkd.in/eKGCZ35N
Find out more about Sujit Datta: lnkd.in/eVXXQH6n
August 12, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by Soft Matter
Our recent article "Run and tumble dynamics of active Janus vesicles" in @softmatter.rsc.org has been featured on the cover of the journal.

Check out the published article: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Congrats to Vivien Willems for this nice work!
August 10, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Don't miss our catch up with authors of Soft Matter Tutorial Review 'Hacktive matter: data-driven discovery through hackathon-based cross-disciplinary coding'

Visit our LinkedIn post to find out more: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Read the review: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
Hacktive matter: data-driven discovery through hackathon-based cross-disciplinary coding
The past decade has seen unprecedented growth in active matter and autonomous biomaterials research, yielding diverse classes of materials capable of flowing, contracting, bundling, de-mixing, and coa...
pubs.rsc.org
August 6, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Soft Matter
Very much looking forward to this seminar on active matter by Kathleen and Sujit! Please register below to join us! @softmatter.rsc.org
Join us next Tuesday, August 5 for our next Desktop Seminar! This webinar on Active Matter will feature Kathleen Stebe (UPenn) and Sujit Datta (Caltech).

Learn more and register here: rsc.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
July 31, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Soft Matter
Our new paper describes a synthetic "cell" that moves over superhydrophobic surfaces. It consists of an H2O2 drop and a chemical garden tube that spins like a propeller or orbits around a large internal O2 bubble; bursting causes repeating cm-scale motion. @softmatter.rsc.org doi.org/10.1039/D5SM...
Co-motion of catalytic tubes and host droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces
The ability to convert chemical energy into directed motion is a defining feature of living systems and a central goal in the design of synthetic active matter. Here, we report a self-propelling syste...
doi.org
July 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM
We were delighted to sponsor the plenary talk given by AB Member Emanuela Del Gado at #StatPhys29 in Florence. AE Emanuela Zaccarelli also attended and introduced the journal & our exciting 20th anniversary collection!

Read the collection here: rsc.li/soft-matter-20
Free to access until 31/12/25!
July 18, 2025 at 12:44 PM