Soft matter at LCMCP
History to present
The historical activity of LCMCP is focused on sol-gel science and technology. However, with the development of hybrid materials, including covalent or non-covalent interactions between inorganic and organic scaffolds, more and more soft systems became a topic of research. From mid/late 90’s, a number of competences on soft molecular systems such as polymers, biopolymers and surfactants integrated the research activity of LCMCP, initially in relationship with inorganic systems, and along the years more and more as inorganic-free, stand-alone, scaffold materials.
The development of soft materials constitute an important well of knowledge at LCMCP, as soft systems are nowadays among the major research axes of at least three Teams, to which one could consider minor side activities of other teams within LCMCP. In this regard, LCMCP has developed a broad instrumental panel, but also a set of scientific competences, able to study and understand soft matter. Both university and CNRS researchers represent today the research activity of LCMCP across a wide range of scientific communities, spanning from biology, biomimetism, polymer science, colloid and interface science, physics.
Invited seminars – 2024 –
LCMCP invites renowned experts to share their knowledge in the field of soft matter. Lectures are open to anyone interested.
The full list of seminars (present, past, future) is given on the MM@LCMCP seminar page. The next upcoming seminar is given below.
September 2024
Dr. Samanvaya Srivastava, Ass. Prof.
University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Polyelectrolyte Complex Scaffoldings for Wet Adhesives and 3D Bioprinting Inks
19/09/2024 – 10h45
AMPHI DURAND, Bat. Esclangon
Campus Pierre et Marie Curie
Sorbonne Université
4, Place Jussieu Paris 5
Online Link
Abstract
Photocrosslinkable precursors (small molecules or polymers) undergo rapid crosslinking upon photoirradiation, forming covalently crosslinked hydrogels. The spatiotemporally controlled crosslinking, which can be achieved in situ, encourages the utility of photocrosslinked hydrogels in biomedicine as bioadhesives, bioprinting inks, and extracellular matrix mimics. However, the low viscosity of the precursor solutions results in handling difficulties owing to unwanted flows and dilution and compromises the strength of the photocrosslinked hydrogels. In this talk, I will introduce oppositely charged triblock polyelectrolytes as additives for precursor solutions that transform the precursor solution into a self-assembled polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) hydrogel with enhanced shear strength and viscosity, providing interim protection against precursor dilution and mitigating secondary flows. The PEC network also augments the properties of the photocrosslinked hydrogels. Crosslinking of the precursors upon photoirradiation results in the formation of interpenetrating polymer network hydrogels (PEC/covalent IPN hydrogels), comprising PEC and covalently-linked networks, that exhibit shear moduli exceeding the linear combination of the moduli of the constituent networks and overcome the tensile strength–extensibility tradeoff that restricts the performance of covalently-linked hydrogels. The reinforcement approach will be shown to be broadly compatible with photocrosslinkable precursors, not requiring any modification of the precursors, and introduce minimal processing steps, paving the way for broader translation of photocrosslinkable materials for biomedical applications.
Biography
Samanvaya is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA. He completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees from IIT Kanpur and his Ph.D. from Cornell University, all in Chemical Engineering. At IIT Kanpur, he worked with Prof. Ashutosh Sharma on instabilities in thin films. At Cornell, he worked with Prof. Lynden Archer on the structure and properties of polymer nanocomposites and nanoparticle dispersions. After his Ph.D., Samanvaya pursued postdoctoral research on polyelectrolyte solutions and complexes with Prof. Matthew Tirrell at The University of Chicago. Samanvaya’s current research interests are in investigating the influence of diverse intermolecular interactions on material structure and properties, with a broader aim to combine this fundamental understanding with molecular engineering and self-assembly processes to improve materials design. He has published over 40 research articles and has received several awards, including the Austin Hooey Graduate Research Excellence Recognition Award at Cornell University, the RSC Researcher Mobility Grant, AIChE 35 under 35 award, a Scialog fellowship, the NSF CAREER Award, and the ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award. Lab website: https://www.srivastava-lab.net/
Open positions
LCMCP regularly has open PhD and Post doc positions in the field of Soft Matter. Please, find them on this dedicated page.
Topics of research
Research involving soft matter can be found across several teams within LCMCP, although none of them has a full activity in this domain.
SMiLES Team. The team is expert in understanding the complex self-assembly processes of soft matter (hydrogels, polymers, lipids, etc.). The activity in the past years has focused on two themes: 1/ understanding the self-assembly process of microbial amphiphiles and the development of soft materials such as hydrogels, complex coacervates, emulsions. 2/ The study of the relationships between the structure, local dynamics and macroscopic rheological behavior of polymers, may them be neutral or charged.
Poirier, A.; Griel, P. Le; Perez, J.; Hermida-Merino, D.; Pernot, P.; Baccile, N. Metallogels from Glycolipid Biosurfactant. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 2022, 10, 16503–16515.
MatBio Team. The team develops a wide diversity of materials and processes to address very diverse areas of application. Most relate to the use of biopolymers in the biomedical field and concern engineering or development approaches for biomaterials (mainly for connective tissues). The integration of new skills has made it possible to develop other fields of research, particularly through the exploitation of the physics of bio-interfaces. Furthemore, based on its experience in handling dense collagen solutions and their extrusion, the Team has developed the 3D collagen bioprinting.
Cleo Parisi, Bénédicte Thiébot, Gervaise Mosser, Léa Trichet, Philippe Manivet, et al.. Porous yet dense matrices: using ice to shape collagen 3D cell culture systems with increased physiological relevance. Biomaterials Science, 2022, 10 (24), pp.6939-6950 
Kankan Qin, Rui Pereira, Thibaud Coradin, Verónica de Zea Bermudez, Francisco M. Fernandes. Biomimetic Silk Macroporous Materials for Drug Delivery Obtained via Ice-Templating. ACS Applied Bio Materials, 2022, 5 (6), pp.2556-2566
Stéphanie de Oliveira, Gregor Miklosic, Joelle Veziers, Sébastien Grastilleur, Thibaud Coradin, et al.. Optimizing the physical properties of collagen/hyaluronan hydrogels by inhibition of polyionic complexes formation at pH close to the collagen isoelectric point. Soft Matter, 2023,19, 9027-9035
Prince David Okoro, Antoine Frayssinet, Stéphanie de Oliveira, Léa Rouquier, Gregor Milkosic, et al.. Combining biomimetic collagen/hyaluronan hydrogels with discogenic growth factors promotes mesenchymal stroma cell differentiation into Nucleus Pulposus like cells. Biomaterials Science, 2023,11, 7768-7783 
MHP Team. MHP is formed to bring together members with strong expertise in the synthesis, characterization and shaping processes of materials. Among others, the team gathers up experts, in 1/ nanocomposite polymer materials, with an interest in the development of eco-responsible nanocomposite polymers for the reduction of environmental impacts through the creation of dynamic organic-inorganic hybrid networks; 2/ biology, tissue engineering and biomineralization, with the desire to explore and better understand at the fundamental level the “structure-property” relationship (optical and mechanical) of collagenous materials and couple them with suitable shaping processes, in order to obtain integrated solutions for non-toxic and minimally invasive tissue repair. 3/ Printing functional soft matter across multiple scales, with the focus on controlling the composition and structure at the molecular and nanoscale via chemical synthesis and at the microscale and macroscale via 3D printing, enabling the creation of devices with diverse functionalities, including energy devices, printed electronics, sensors, and soft robots.
Fabien Périneau, Sandrine Pensec, Clément Sanchez, Costantino Creton, Laurence Rozes, et al.. Supramolecular design for polymer/titanium oxo‐cluster hybrids: an open door to new organic–inorganic dynamers. Polymer Chemistry, 2011, 2 (12), pp.2785
Competences
Renowed experts work at LCMCP. Link to this page to know more about them, their skills and competences.
Literature
A series of books on soft matter, soft matter physics and dynamics is proposed for further reading here.
Instrumentation
LCMCP owns, or has direct access, to a multitude of instruments, which can employed to study soft colloidal systems and materials. Below a list as of Nov 2023, where (O) is Owned and (S) is Shared with other labs at Sorbonne Université.
Small Angle X-ray Scattering (Xenocs) (S)
Rheometer (Anton Paar) (O)
Dynamic light scattering (Malvern) (O)
Polarized light microscope (O)
Fluorescence microscope (O)
Dynamic scanning calorimetry (O)
Nuclear magnetic resonance (Bruker): solid-state 300 MHz (O), 700 MHz (S); liquid-state 300 MHz (O), 500 MHz (S). Probes: HR-MAS 4 mm (O), 1.3 mm (S)
Cryogenic Transmission electron microscopy (O)
Dynamic mechanical analysis (O)
Processing
LCMCP has a strong expertise in 1D, 2D and 3D materials processing. Most techniques are developed to be applied to the shaping of inorganic or hybrid materials, but some are extended to process soft matter. One can find the following:
Inkjet printing
3D printing
Spray drying
Supercritical CO2
Freeze drying
Directional freezing
Electroformation
Controlled drying
Knowledge
LCMCP has researchers with established competences in soft matter science and technology. At the same time, LCMCP welcomes internal and external collaborations, seminars and guests to develop its soft matter skills in the next years. The most important skills at LCMCP are:
Use of cryo-TEM
Use of SAXS/SANS/SLS, data recording and analysis (model fitting)
NMR theory, pulse program writing, sample environment, use of NMR to study dynamics in soft materials
Processing
Basics rheology