According to a team of physicists at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, liquids that recover the newly discovered shapes go against years of expectation derived from the laws of thermodynamics.
This image shows emulsion droplets stabilized by silica nanoparticles with nickel nanoparticles remaining on the drop surface. Image credit: Raykh et al. , doi: 10.1038/s41567-025-02865-1.
“Imagine your favorite Italian salad dressing,” said Professor Thomas Russell, Amherst professor at the University of Massachusetts.
“It consists of oil, water and spices, and all the ingredients are mixed together and shaken with it before pouring it into the salad.”
“It is those spices, something else, that are usually mutually exclusive, that mix water and oil, allowing a process called emulsification, that is small bits of those spices, something else, explained by the laws of thermodynamics.”
“Emulsification underlies a vast amount of technology and applications that go far beyond seasonings,” said Anthony Leif, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst University.
“One day I was in the lab to mix this batch of science salad dressing and see what I could create. Instead of spice, I used magnetized particles of nickel because I could design any kind of interesting material that has useful properties when it contains magnetic particles.”
“I made the mixture and rocked it – and to my total surprise, the mixture formed this beautiful, pristine ur shape.”
“No matter how many times, how violently it was, the bones have always returned.”
The researchers determined that using additional lab experiments and simulations, they would explain the mysterious phenomenon of magnetism, strong magnetism, discovered.
“A very close look at the individual magnetized nickel nanoparticles that form the water-oil boundary gives you very detailed information on how the different morphologies are assembled.”
“In this case, the particles are magnetized so strongly that the assembly interferes with the emulsification process described by the laws of thermodynamics.”
The particles that are usually added to oil and water mixtures reduce the tension at the interface between the two liquids, allowing them to be mixed.
However, with a twist, the well-heavy magnetized particles actually increase the interfacial tension, bending the oil-water boundary into an elegant curve.
“When you see something impossible, you have to investigate,” Professor Russell said.
“We don’t have any applications yet in our discoveries, but we look forward to seeing how unprecedented states will affect the field of soft matter physics,” added Raykh.
Team’s work It will be displayed in the journal Natural Physics.
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A.Rafe et al. Shape recovery solution. nut. PhysPublished online on April 4, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41567-025-02865-1
Source: www.sci.news
