Publications – Dullens Lab

2025

Attraction-Enhanced Emergence of Friction in Colloidal Matter

Berend van der Meer, Taiki Yanagishima, and Roel P A Dullens

Phys. Rev. Lett. 2025 134 078202

How frictional effects emerge at the microscopic level in particulate materials remains a challenging question, particularly in systems subject to thermal fluctuations due to the transient nature of i ...

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2024

Liquid crystals from curved colloidal rods: waves, twists and more

Carla Fernández-Rico, and Roel P A Dullens

Rep. Prog. Phys. 2024 87 094601

The curvature of elongated microscopic building blocks plays a crucial role on their self-assembly into orientationally ordered phases. While rod-like molecules form a handful of liquid crystal (LC) p ...

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Grain rotation in impurity-doped two-dimensional colloidal polycrystals

Joseph D Hutchinson, and Roel P A Dullens

Phys. Rev. Materials 2024 8 075603

Grain texture evolution and coarsening after quenching can be achieved by curvature-driven growth and grain rotation. Here we examine grain rotation in coarsening, impurity-doped, two-dimensional coll ...

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Spearheading a new era in complex colloid synthesis with TPM and other silanes

Marlous Kamp, Stefano Sacanna, and Roel P A Dullens

Nat. Rev. Chem. 2024 8 433

Colloid science has recently grown substantially owing to the innovative use of silane coupling agents (SCAs), especially 3-trimethoxysilylpropyl methacrylate (TPM). SCAs were previously used mainly a ...

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Direct measurement of repulsive and attractive pair potentials using pairs of optical traps

Miranda C R Bell-Davies, Joan Codina, Arran Curran, Jure Dobnikar, Roel P A Dullens, and Ignacio Pagonabarraga

J. Chem. Phys. 2024 160 184201

We present a technique for measuring the interactions between pairs of colloidal particles in two optical traps. This method is particularly suitable for measuring strongly attractive potentials, an o ...

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2023

From ultra-fast growth to avalanche growth in devitrifying glasses

Taiki Yanagishima, John Russo, Roel P A Dullens, and Hajime Tanaka

J. Chem. Phys. 2023 159 064510

During devitrification, pre-existing crystallites grow by adding particles to their surface via a process that is either thermally activated (diffusive mode) or happens without kinetic barriers (fast ...

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Dynamics of a colloidal particle driven by continuous time-delayed feedback

Miranda C R Bell-Davies, Arran Curran, Yanyan Liu, and Roel P A Dullens

Phys. Rev. E 2023 107 064601

We perform feedback experiments and simulations in which a colloidal dumbbell particle, acting as a particle on a ring, is followed by a repulsive optical trap controlled by a continuous-time-delayed ...

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Effect of curvature on the diffusion of colloidal bananas

Justin-Aurel Ulbrich, Carla Fernández-Rico, Brian Rost, Jacopo Vialetto, Lucio Isa, Jeffrey S Urbach, and Roel P A Dullens

Phys. Rev. E 2023 107 042602

Anisotropic colloidal particles exhibit complex dynamics which play a crucial role in their functionality, transport, and phase behavior. In this Letter, we investigate the two-dimensional diffusion o ...

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Characterization and Optimization of Fluorescent Organosilica Colloids for 3D Confocal Microscopy Prepared Under “Zero-Flow” Conditions

Ruth A Crothers, Nicholas H P Orr, Berend van der Meer, Roel P A Dullens, and Taiki Yanagishima

Langmuir 2023 39 5306

We optimize and characterize the preparation of 3-trimethoxysilyl propyl methacrylate (TPM) colloidal suspensions for three-dimensional confocal microscopy. We revisit a simple synthesis of TPM micros ...

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2022

Single-orientation colloidal crystals from capillary-action-induced shear

Nicholas H P Orr, Taiki Yanagishima, Igor P Dolbnya, Andrei V Petukhov, and Roel P A Dullens

J. Chem. Phys. 2022 157 224903

We study the crystallization of colloidal dispersions under capillary-action-induced shear as the dispersion is drawn into flat walled capillaries. Using confocal microscopy and small angle x-ray scat ...

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Crystallization and grain growth in impurity-doped colloidal polycrystals

Joseph D Hutchinson, François A Lavergne, and Roel PA Dullens

Phys. Rev. Materials 2022 6 075604

Alloying has long been used to control the properties of crystalline materials. However, the microscopic details of the effects of adding impurities remains poorly understood, as directly imaging thes ...

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2021

Grain boundary characterization from particle coordinates

Nicholas HP Orr, Taiki Yanagishima, Eric Maire, and Roel PA Dullens

Phys. Rev. Materials 2021 5 123605

We present a method to locate and characterize grain boundaries in polycrystalline materials from the real-space coordinates of their constituent particles. The method is robust against imperfections ...

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Towards Glasses with Permanent Stability

Taiki Yanagishima, John Russo, Roel PA Dullens, and Hajime Tanaka

Phys. Rev. Mater. 2021 127 215501

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Hierarchical self-assembly of polydisperse colloidal bananas into a two-dimensional vortex phase

Carla Fernandez-Rico, and Roel PA Dullens

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2021 118 2107241118

Self-assembly of microscopic building blocks into highly ordered and functional structures is ubiquitous in nature and found at all length scales. Hierarchical structures formed by colloidal building ...

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Particle-Level Visualization of Hydrodynamic and Frictional Couplings in Dense Suspensions of Spherical Colloids

Taiki Yanagishima, Yanyan Liu, Hajime Tanaka, and Roel PA Dullens

Phys. Rev. X 2021 11 021056

The rotational Brownian motion of colloidal spheres in dense suspensions reflects local hydrodynamics and contact forces, which are both key to nonlinear rheological phenomena such as shear-thickening ...

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Stabilisation of hollow colloidal TiO2 particles by partial coating with evenly distributed lobes

Bo Peng, Yanyan Liu, Dirk GAL Aarts, and Roel PA Dullens

Soft Matter 2021 17 1480

Photo-catalytically active crystalline TiO2 has attracted special attention due to its relevance for renewable energy and is typically obtained by the calcination of amorphous TiO2. However, stabilisi ...

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Mechanical properties of colloidal crystals at fluid interfaces

Ivo Buttinoni, and Roel PA Dullens

J. Phys.- Mater. 2021 4 025001

We characterise the local mechanical properties of two-dimensional colloidal crystals with hexagonal symmetry assembled at the flat interface between oil and water. Our experiments elucidate the condi ...

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Synthesis of Rough Colloidal SU-8 Rods and Bananas via Nanoprecipitation

Carla Fernandez-Rico, Jeffrey S Urbach, and Roel PA Dullens

Langmuir 2021 37 2900

Surface roughness plays an important role in determining the mechanical properties, wettability, and self-assembly in colloidal systems. In this work, we develop a simple and fast method to produce ro ...

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2020

Shaping colloidal bananas to reveal biaxial, splay-bend nematic, and smectic phases

Carla Fernandez-Rico, Massimiliano Chiappini, Taiki Yanagishima, Heidi de Sousa, Dirk GAL Aarts, Marjolein Dijkstra, and Roel PA Dulllens

Science 2020 369 950

Understanding the impact of curvature on the self-assembly of elongated microscopic building blocks, such as molecules and proteins, is key to engineering functional materials with predesigned structu ...

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Generalized network theory of physical two-dimensional systems

David O Morley, Alice L Thorneywork, Roel PA Dullens, and Mark Wilson

Phys. Rev. E 2020 101 042309

The properties of a wide range of two-dimensional network materials are investigated by developing a generalized network theory. The methods developed are shown to be applicable to a wide range of sys ...

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Long-time self-diffusion in quasi-two-dimensional colloidal fluids of paramagnetic particles

Nima H Siboni, Alice L Thorneywork, Alicia Damm, Roel PA Dullens, and Juergen Horbach

Phys. Rev. E 2020 101 042609

The effect of hydrodynamic interactions (HI) on the long-time self-diffusion in quasi-two-dimensional fluids of paramagnetic colloidal particles is investigated using a combination of experiments and ...

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2019

Model-Free Measurement of the Pair Potential in Colloidal Fluids Using Optical Microscopy

Adam E Stones, Roel PA Dullens, and Dirk GAL Aarts

Phys. Rev. Lett. 2019 123 098002

We report a straightforward, model-free approach for measuring pair potentials from particle-coordinate data, based on enforcing consistency between the pair distribution function measured separately ...

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Transport of a colloidal particle driven across a temporally oscillating optical potential energy landscape

Joshua L Abbott, Arthur V Straube, Dirk GAL Aarts, and Roel PA Dullens

New J. Phys. 2019 21 083027

A colloidal particle is driven across a temporally oscillating one-dimensional optical potential energy landscape and its particle motion is analysed. Different modes of dynamic mode locking are obser ...

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Shrinkage mechanisms of grain boundary loops in two-dimensional colloidal crystals

Francois A Lavergne, Arran Curran, Dirk GAL Aarts, and Roel PA Dullens

Eur. Phys. J. B 2019 92 142

We discuss the various mechanisms involved in the spontaneous shrinkage of circular grain boundaries in two-dimensional colloidal crystals. We provide experimental evidence that these grain boundary l ...

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Colloidal Organosilica Spheres for Three-Dimensional Confocal Microscopy

Yanyan Liu, Taiki Yanagishima, Arran Curran, Kazem V Edmond, Stefano Sacanna, and Roel PA Dullens

Langmuir 2019 35 7962

We describe the synthesis and application of 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate (TPM) particles as a colloidal model system for three-dimensional (3D) confocal scanning laser microscopy. The effec ...

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Synthesis of Colloidal SU-8 Polymer Rods Using Sonication

Carla Fernandez-Rico, Taiki Yanagishima, Arran Curran, Dirk GAL Aarts, and Roel PA Dullens

Adv. Mater. 2019 31 1807514

The bulk synthesis of fluorescent colloidal SU-8 polymer rods with tunable dimensions is described. The colloidal SU-8 rods are prepared by shearing an emulsion of SU-8 polymer droplets and then expos ...

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Colloidal rods in optical potential energy landscapes

Joshua L Abbott, James A Spiers, Yongxiang Gao, Dirk GAL Aarts, and Roel PA Dullens

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys 2019 52 024002

We study the static and dynamic behaviour of colloidal rods in an optical potential energy landscape. We explore the stable states of a colloidal rod in a single optical trap close to a flat wall. Her ...

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2018

Capillary nematisation of colloidal rods in confinement

Kira E Klop, Roel PA Dullens, Paul M Lettinga, Sergei A Sergei, and Dirk GAL Aarts

Mol. Phys. 2018 116 2864

We confine a colloidal liquid crystal between parallel plates separated down to several times the rod length. By connecting the system to a reservoir we effectively create a grand canonical system, in ...

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Bulk synthesis of silver-head colloidal rodlike micromotors

Yongxiang Gao, Roel PA Dullens, and Dirk GAL Aarts

Soft Matter 2018 14 7119

Colloidal particles with asymmetric catalytic activities are emerging micro/nanomotors that harvest chemical energy for propulsion in fluids. It is of general interest to produce such particles with h ...

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Structure factors in a two-dimensional binary colloidal hard sphere system

Alice L Thorneywork, Simon K Schnyder, Dirk GAL Aarts, Juergen Horbach, Roland Roth, and Roel PA Dullens

Mol. Phys. 2018 116 3245

Hard disks are one of the simplest interacting many-body model system in two dimensions (2D). Here, we present a comprehensive set of measurements of the static structure factors for quasi-2D monodisp ...

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Dislocation-controlled formation and kinetics of grain boundary loops in two-dimensional crystals

Francois A Lavergne, Arran Curran, Dirk GAL Aarts, and Roel PA Dullens

P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2018 115 6922

The formation and kinetics of grain boundaries are closely related to the topological constraints imposed on their complex dislocation structure. Loop-shaped grain boundaries are unique structures to ...

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Contact values of pair distribution functions in colloidal hard disks by test-particle insertion

Adam E Stones, Roel PA Dullens, and Dirk GAL Aarts

J. Chem. Phys. 2018 148 241102

We apply Henderson's method for measuring the cavity distribution function y(r) [J. Henderson, Mol. Phys. 48, 389 (1983)] to obtain the pair distribution function at contact, g(sigma(+)). In contrast ...

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Superparamagnetic nickel colloidal nanocrystal clusters with antibacterial activity and bacteria binding ability

Bo Peng, Xinglin Xinglin, Dirk GAL Aarts, and Roel PA Dullens

Nat. Nanotechnol. 2018 13 478

Recent progress in synthetic nanotechnology and the ancient use of metals in food preservation and the antibacterial treatment of wounds have prompted the development of nanometallic materials for ant ...

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Bulk dynamics of Brownian hard disks: Dynamical density functional theory versus experiments on two-dimensional colloidal hard spheres

Daniel Stopper, Alice L Thorneywork, Roel PA Dullens, and Roland Roth

J. Chem. Phys. 2018 148 104501

Using dynamical density functional theory (DDFT), we theoretically study Brownian self-diffusion and structural relaxation of hard disks and compare to experimental results on quasi two-dimensional co ...

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Bond-orientational order and Frank’s constant in two-dimensional colloidal hard spheres

Alice L Thorneywork, Joshua L Abbott, Dirk GAL Aarts, Peter Keim, and Roel PA Dullens

J. Phys-Condens. Mat. 2018 30 104003

Recently, the full phase behaviour of 2D colloidal hard spheres was experimentally established, and found to involve a first order liquid to hexatic transition and a continuous hexatic to crystal tran ...

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Directed self-assembly into low-density colloidal liquid crystal phases

Yongxiang Gao, Flavio Romano, Roel PA Dullens, Jonathan K Doye, and Dirk GAL Aarts

Phys. Rev. Materials 2018 2 015601

Alignment of anisometric particles into liquid crystals (LCs) often results from an entropic competition between their rotational and translational degrees of freedom at dense packings. Here we show t ...

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2017

Anomalous Grain Growth in a Polycrystalline Monolayer of Colloidal Hard Spheres

Francois A Lavergne, Dirk GAL Aarts, and Roel PA Dullens

Phys. Rev. X 2017 7 041064

Understanding grain growth is key for controlling the microstructure and the mechanical properties of most polycrystalline materials, including metals, alloys, and ceramics. However, the precise mecha ...

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Structural disorder, filament growth and self-poisoning in short rods confined onto a flat wall

Yongxiang Gao, Violet Farkas, Roel PA Dullens, and Dirk GAL Aarts

Soft Matter 2017 13 8678

Confocal microscopy was used to directly observe the structural coarsening of the first layer of short colloidal rods sedimented onto a flat wall. Based on an image analysis algorithm we devised, quan ...

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Two-Dimensional Melting of Colloidal Hard Spheres

Alice L Thorneywork, Joshua L Abbott, Dirk G A L Aarts, and Roel P A Dullens

Phys. Rev. Lett. 2017 118 158001

We study the melting of quasi-two-dimensional colloidal hard spheres by considering a tilted monolayer of particles in sedimentation-diffusion equilibrium. In particular, we measure the equation of st ...

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Dynamic heterogeneities and non-Gaussian behavior in two-dimensional randomly confined colloidal fluids

Simon K Schnyder, Thomas O E Skinner, Alice L Thorneywork, Dirk G A L Aarts, Juergen Horbach, and Roel P A Dullens

Phys. Rev. E 2017 95 032602

A binary mixture of superparamagnetic colloidal particles is confined between glass plates such that the large particles become fixed and provide a two-dimensional disorderedmatrix for the still mobile small particles, which form a fluid. By varying fluid and matrix area fractions and tuning the i ...

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Colloidal liquid crystals in square confinement: isotropic, nematic and smectic phases

Louis B G Cortes, Yongxiang Gao, Roel P A Dullens, and Dirk G A L Aarts

J. PHYS.-CONDENS. MAT. 2017 29 064003

We report on the confinement of colloidal liquid crystals in three dimensional chambers with a square footprint. To this end we use colloidal silica rods and exploit their relatively large density difference with respect to the dispersing solvent to study isotropic, nematic and smectic phases confin ...

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Self-diffusion in two-dimensional binary colloidal hard-sphere fluids

Alice L Thorneywork, Dirk G A L Aarts, Juergen Horbach, and Roel P A Dullens

Phys. Rev. E 2017 95 012614

We present a systematic experimental study of the dynamic behavior of monodisperse and bidisperse twodimensional colloidal hard-sphere fluids. We consider the diffusive behavior of the two types of particles for systems with a variety of compositions and total area fractions. In particular, we measu ...

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Dynamic mode locking in a driven colloidal system: experiments and theory

Michael P N Juniper, Urs Zimmermann, Arthur V Straube, Rut Besseling, Dirk G A L Aarts, Hartmut Loewen, and Roel P A Dullens

NEW J. PHYS. 2017 19 013010

In this article we examine the dynamics of a colloidal particle driven by a modulated force over a sinusoidal optical potential energy landscape. Coupling between the competing frequencies of the modulated drive and that of particle motion over the periodic landscape leads to synchronisation of part ...

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Exploring concentration, surface area and surface chemistry effects of colloidal aggregates on fat crystal networks

Raamanand R Chauhan, Roel P A Dullens, Krassimir P Velikov, and Dirk G A L Aarts

RSC Adv. 2017 7 28780

We study the effects of concentration, surface area and surface chemistry of fractal fumed silica aggregates on a model fat-structured food system. We use oscillatory stress sweep rheology to determine the storage modulus, the length of the linear viscoelastic region and the rate of network breakdow ...

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The effect of colloidal aggregates on fat crystal networks

Raamanand R Chauhan, Roel P A Dullens, Krassimir P Velikov, and Dirk G A L Aarts

Food Funct. 2017 8 352

We investigate the role of a colloidal model system in the crystallization and network formation of lipids. This system consists of fractal fumed silica aggregates. We look at the influence of different solid fat concentrations and fumed silica concentrations on the resulting gel network. Oscillat ...

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2016

Equilibrium Grain Boundary Segregation and Clustering of Impurities in Colloidal Polycrystalline Monolayers

Francois A Lavergne, Samuel Diana, Dirk G A L Aarts, and Roel P A Dullens

LANGMUIR 2016 32 12716

We investigate the segregation of impurities to grain boundaries in colloidal polycrystalline monolayers using video microscopy. A model colloidal alloy is prepared by embedding large spherical impurities in a polycrystalline monolayer of small host colloidal hard spheres, which stops grain growth a ...

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Coordination number statistics of cluster formation

Colin P Reynolds, David Robinson, Dirk G A L Aarts, Mark Wilson, William W Sampson, and Roel P A Dullens

EPL-Europhys. Lett. 2016 116 28001

We establish a direct relation between the distribution of coordination numbers for individual particles and the mean cluster size using simple statistical considerations. We test our probabilistic theory against an experimental model system of superparamagnetic colloidal particles, which form cha ...

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Core-Shell Particles for Simultaneous 3D Imaging and Optical Tweezing in Dense Colloidal Materials

Yanyan Liu, Kazem V Edmond, Arran Curran, Charles Bryant, Bo Peng, Dirk G A L Aarts, Stefano Sacanna, and Roel P A Dullens

Adv. Mater. 2016 28 8001

A new colloidal system that consists of core-shell "probe" particles embedded in an optically transparent "host" particle suspension is developed. This system enables simultaneous fast confocal imaging and optical tweezing in dense 3D colloidal materials. ...

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Segregated Ice Growth in a Suspension of Colloidal Particles

Julia M H Schollick, Robert W Style, Arran Curran, John S Wettlaufer, Eric R Dufresne, Patrick B Warren, Krassimir P Velikov, and Roel P A Dullens

J. Phys. Chem. B 2016 120 3941

We study the freezing of a dispersion of colloidal silica particles in water, focusing on the formation of segregated ice in the form of ice lenses. Local temperature measurements in combination with video microscopy give insight into the rich variety of factors that control ice lens formation. We o ...

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Colloidal particles driven across periodic optical-potential-energy landscapes

Michael P N Juniper, Arthur V Straube, Dirk G A L Aarts, and Roel P A Dullens

Phys. Rev. E 2016 93 012608

We study the motion of colloidal particles driven by a constant force over a periodic optical potential energy landscape. First, the average particle velocity is found as a function of the driving velocity and the wavelength of the optical potential energy landscape. The relationship between average ...

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On the Gaussian approximation in colloidal hard sphere fluids

Alice L Thorneywork, Dirk G A L Aarts, Juergen Horbach, and Roel P A Dullens

Soft Matter 2016 12 4129

We study the behaviour of the self-intermediate scattering function and self-van Hove correlation function for quasi-two-dimensional colloidal hard sphere fluids at a range of area fractions. We compute these functions first directly from the particle coordinates and secondly from the mean squared d ...

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2015

Effect of Hydrodynamic Interactions on Self-Diffusion of Quasi-Two-Dimensional Colloidal Hard Spheres

Alice L Thorneywork, Roberto E Rozas, Roel P A Dullens, and Juergen Horbach

Phys. Rev. Lett. 2015 115 268301

We compare experimental results from a quasi-two-dimensional colloidal hard sphere fluid to a Monte Carlo simulation of hard disks with small particle displacements. The experimental short-time self-diffusion coefficient D-S scaled by the diffusion coefficient at infinite dilution, D-0, strongly dep ...

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Thermal Analog of Gimbal Lock in a Colloidal Ferromagnetic Janus Rod

Yongxiang Gao, Andrew K Balin, Roel P A Dullens, Julia M Yeomans, and Dirk G A L Aarts

Phys. Rev. Lett. 2015 115 248301

We report an entropy-driven orientational hopping transition in a magnetically confined colloidal Janus rod. In a magnetic field, the sedimented rod randomly hops between horizontal and vertical states: the latter state comes at a substantial gravitational cost at no reduction of magnetic potential ...

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Deterministic aggregation kinetics of superparamagnetic colloidal particles

Colin P Reynolds, Kira E Klop, Francois A Lavergne, Sarah M Morrow, Dirk G A L Aarts, and Roel P A Dullens

J. Chem. Phys. 2015 143 214903

We study the irreversible aggregation kinetics of superparamagnetic colloidal particles in two dimensions in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field at low packing fractions. Optical microscopy and image analysis techniques are used to follow the aggregation process and in particular study the pa ...

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Direct calculation of distortion energies in colloidal liquid crystals from single-particle data

Kira E Klop, Chris L Farmer, Roel P A Dullens, and Dirk G A L Aarts

Mol. Phys. 2015 113 2693

We report a method to calculate distortion energies of a colloidal liquid crystal from single-particle data via a triangulation of the particle positions followed by a linear interpolation of the particle orientations. Our method provides local information on the strength and type of distortions pre ...

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Self-assembly and crystallisation of indented colloids at a planar wall

Douglas J Ashton, Samantha J Ivell, Roel P A Dullens, Robert L Jack, Nigel B Wilding, and Dirk G A L Aarts

Soft Matter 2015 11 6089

We report experimental and simulation studies of the structure of a monolayer of indented (“lock and key”) colloids, on a planar surface. On adding a non-absorbing polymer with prescribed radius and volume fraction, depletion interactions are induced between the colloids, with controlled range a ...

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Superconfinement tailors fluid flow at microscales

Siti A Setu, Roel P A Dullens, Aurora Hernandez-Machado, Ignacio Pagonabarraga, Dirk G A L Aarts, and Rodrigo Ledesma-Aguilar

Nat. Commun. 2015 6 7297

Understanding fluid dynamics under extreme confinement, where device and intrinsic fluid length scales become comparable, is essential to successfully develop the coming generations of fluidic devices. Here we report measurements of advancing fluid fronts in such a regime, which we dub superconfinem ...

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Determining local geometrical features of grain boundaries from microscopy

Francois A Lavergne, Dirk G A L Aarts, and Roel P A Dullens

J. PHYS.-CONDENS. MAT. 2015 27 194117

Grain boundaries are solid-solid interfaces whose dynamics is driven by their local curvature. As they are fluctuating interfaces and have a width comparable to the lattice spacing of the surrounding grains, the determination of their local geometrical characteristics is difficult. Here we present a ...

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Microscopic dynamics of synchronization in driven colloids

Michael P N Juniper, Arthur V Straube, Rut Besseling, Dirk G A L Aarts, and Roel P A Dullens

Nat. Commun. 2015 6 7187

Synchronization of coupled oscillators has been scrutinized for over three centuries, from Huygens' pendulum clocks to physiological rhythms. One such synchronization phenomenon, dynamic mode locking, occurs when naturally oscillating processes are driven by an externally imposed modulation. Typical ...

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