Publications by Year: 2005

2005
Gardel, M. L. ; Valentine, M. T. ; Weitz, D. A. Microrheology. In Microscale Diagnostic Techniques; Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2005; pp. 1-49. Publisher's Version
Won, Y. Y. ; Meeker, S. P. ; Trappe, V. ; Weitz, D. A. ; Diggs, N. Z. ; Emert, J. I. Effect of temperature on carbon-black agglomeration in hydrocarbon liquid with adsorbed dispersant. Langmuir 2005, 21, 924-932. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Suspensions of carbon black in oil, stabilized with adsorbed polyisobutylene succinimide (PIBSI) dispersant, are commonly used as model systems for investigating the soot-handling characteristics of motor oils. The structure of the carbon-black agglomerates changes dramatically with temperature; this results in a concomitant change in the suspension rheology. Linear and nonlinear rheological experiments indicate a large increase of the interparticle attractions as the temperature is raised. To elucidate the origin of this behavior, we investigate the effect of temperature on the stabilizing effect of the dispersant. Measurements of adsorption isotherms of the dispersant on carbon black indicate that there is little variation of the binding energy with temperature. Intrinsic viscosity measurements of PIBSI dispersants in solution clearly exhibit an inverse dependence of the dispersant chain dimension with temperature. These results suggest that the temperature-dependent changes in the chain conformation of the PIBSI dispersant are primarily responsible for the changes in the dispersion rheology, and we propose a simple model to account for these data.
won2005.pdf
Valentine, M. T. ; Perlman, Z. E. ; Mitchison, T. J. ; Weitz, D. A. Mechanical properties of Xenopus egg cytoplasmic extracts. Biophysical Journal 2005, 88, 680-689. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Cytoplasmic extracts prepared from Xenopus laevis eggs are used for the reconstitution of a wide range of processes in cell biology, and offer a unique environment in which to investigate the role of cytoplasmic mechanics without the complication of preorganized cellular structures. As a step toward understanding the mechanical properties of this system, we have characterized the rheology of crude interphase extracts. At macroscopic length scales, the extract forms a soft viscoelastic solid. Using a conventional mechanical rheometer, we measure the elastic modulus to be in the range of 2 - 10 Pa, and loss modulus in the range of 0.5 - 5 Pa. Using pharmacological and immunological disruption methods, we establish that actin. laments and microtubules cooperate to give mechanical strength, whereas the intermediate. lament cytokeratin does not contribute to viscoelasticity. At microscopic length scales smaller than the average network mesh size, the response is predominantly viscous. We use multiple particle tracking methods to measure the thermal fluctuations of 1 mum embedded tracer particles, and measure the viscosity to be similar to20 mPa-s. We explore the impact of rheology on actin-dependent cytoplasmic contraction, and find that although microtubules modulate contractile forces in vitro, their interactions are not purely mechanical.
valentine2005.pdf
Utada, A. S. ; Lorenceau, E. ; Link, D. R. ; Kaplan, P. D. ; Stone, H. A. ; Weitz, D. A. Monodisperse double emulsions generated from a microcapillary device. Science 2005, 308, 537-541. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Double emulsions are highly structured fluids consisting of emulsion drops that contain smaller droplets inside. Although double emulsions are potentially of commercial value, traditional fabrication by means of two emulsification steps leads to very ill-controlled structuring. Using a microcapillary device, we fabricated double emulsions that contained a single internal droplet in a coreshell geometry. We show that the droplet size can be quantitatively predicted from the flow profiles of the fluids. The double emulsions were used to generate encapsulation structures by manipulating the properties of the fluid that makes up the shell. The high degree of control afforded by this method and the completely separate fluid streams make this a flexible and promising technique.
utada2005.pdf
Tsapis, N. ; Dufresne, E. R. ; Sinha, S. S. ; Riera, C. S. ; Hutchinson, J. W. ; Mahadevan, L. ; Weitz, D. A. Onset of buckling in drying droplets of colloidal suspensions. Physical Review Letters 2005, 94, 018302. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Minute concentrations of suspended particles can dramatically alter the behavior of a drying droplet. After a period of isotropic shrinkage, similar to droplets of a pure liquid, these droplets suddenly buckle like an elastic shell. While linear elasticity is able to describe the morphology of the buckled droplets, it fails to predict the onset of buckling. Instead, we find that buckling is coincident with a stress-induced fluid to solid transition in a shell of particles at a droplet's surface, occurring when attractive capillary forces overcome stabilizing electrostatic forces between particles.
tsapis2005.pdf
Manley, S. ; Wyss, H. M. ; Miyazaki, K. ; Conrad, J. C. ; Trappe, V. ; Kaufman, L. J. ; Reichman, D. R. ; Weitz, D. A. Glasslike arrest in spinodal decomposition as a route to colloidal gelation. Physical Review Letters 2005, 95, 238302. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Colloid-polymer mixtures can undergo spinodal decomposition into colloid-rich and colloid-poor regions. Gelation results when interconnected colloid-rich regions solidify. We show that this occurs when these regions undergo a glass transition, leading to dynamic arrest of the spinodal decomposition. The characteristic length scale of the gel decreases with increasing quench depth, and the nonergodicity parameter exhibits a pronounced dependence on scattering vector. Mode coupling theory gives a good description of the dynamics, provided we use the full static structure as input.
manley2005.pdf
Manley, S. ; Skotheim, J. M. ; Mahadevan, L. ; Weitz, D. A. Gravitational collapse of colloidal gels. Physical Review Letters 2005, 94, 218302. Publisher's VersionAbstract
We present a unified framework for understanding the compaction of colloidal gels under their own weight. The dynamics of the collapse are determined by the value of the gravitational stress σ(g), as compared to the yield stress σ(Y) of the network. For σ(g)<σ(Y), gels collapse poroelastically, and their rate of compression decays exponentially in time. For σ(g)>σ(Y), the network eventually yields, leading to rapid settling. In both cases, the rate of collapse is backflow limited, while its overall magnitude is determined by a balance between gravitational stress and network elastic stress.
manley2005.pdf
Manley, S. ; Davidovitch, B. ; Davies, N. R. ; Cipelletti, L. ; Bailey, A. E. ; Christianson, R. J. ; Gasser, U. ; Prasad, V. ; Segre, P. N. ; Doherty, M. P. ; et al. Time-dependent strength of colloidal gels. Physical Review Letters 2005, 95, 048302. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Colloidal silica gels are shown to stiffen with time, as demonstrated by both dynamic light scattering and bulk rheological measurements. Their elastic moduli increase as a power law with time, independent of particle volume fraction; however, static light scattering indicates that there are no large-scale structural changes. We propose that increases in local elasticity arising from bonding between neighboring colloidal particles can account for the strengthening of the network, while preserving network structure.
manley2005.pdf
Lorenceau, E. ; Utada, A. S. ; Link, D. R. ; Cristobal, G. ; Joanicot, M. ; Weitz, D. A. Generation of polymerosomes from double-emulsions. Langmuir 2005, 21, 9183-9186. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Diblock copolymers are known to spontaneously organize into polymer vesicles. Typically, this is achieved through the techniques of film rehydration or electroformation. We present a new method for generating polymer vesicles from double emulsions. We generate precision water-in-oil-in-water double emulsions from the breakup of concentric fluid streams; the hydrophobic fluid is a volatile mixture of organic solvent that contains dissolved diblock copolymers. We collect the double emulsions and slowly evaporate the organic solvent, which ultimately directs the self-assembly of the dissolved diblock copolymers into vesicular structures. Independent control over all three fluid streams enables precision assembly of polymer vesicles and provides for highly efficient encapsulation of active ingredients within the polymerosomes. We also use double emulsions with several internal drops to form new polymerosome structures.
lorenceau2005.pdf
Kaufman, L. J. ; Brangwynne, C. P. ; Kasza, K. E. ; Filippidi, E. ; Gordon, V. D. ; Deisboeck, T. S. ; Weitz, D. A. Glioma expansion in collagen I matrices: Analyzing collagen concentration-dependent growth and motility patterns. Biophysical Journal 2005, 89, 635-650. Publisher's VersionAbstract
We study the growth and invasion of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) in three-dimensional collagen I matrices of varying collagen concentration. Phase-contrast microscopy studies of the entire GBM system show that invasiveness at early times is limited by available collagen fibers. At early times, high collagen concentration correlates with more effective invasion. Conversely, high collagen concentration correlates with inhibition in the growth of the central portion of GBM, the multicellular tumor spheroid. Analysis of confocal reflectance images of the collagen matrices quantifies how the collagen matrices differ as a function of concentration. Studying invasion on the length scale of individual invading cells with a combination of confocal and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy reveals that the invasive GBM cells rely heavily on cell-matrix interactions during invasion and remodeling.
kaufman2005.pdf
Hsu, M. F. ; Dufresne, E. R. ; Weitz, D. A. Charge stabilization in nonpolar solvents. Langmuir 2005, 21, 4881-4887. Publisher's VersionAbstract
While the important role of electrostatic interactions in aqueous colloidal suspensions is widely known and reasonably well-understood, their relevance to nonpolar suspensions remains mysterious. We measure the interaction potentials of colloidal particles in a nonpolar solvent with reverse micelles. We find surprisingly strong electrostatic interactions characterized by surface potentials, vertical bar e zeta vertical bar, from 2.0 to 4.4 k(B)T and screening lengths, kappa(-1), from 0.2 to 1.4 mu m. Interactions depend on the concentration of reverse micelles and the degree of confinement. Furthermore, when the particles are weakly confined, the values of vertical bar e zeta vertical bar and kappa extracted from interaction measurements are consistent with bulk measurements of conductivity and electrophoretic mobility. A simple thermodynamic model, relating the structure of the micelles to the equilibrium ionic strength, is in good agreement with both conductivity and interaction measurements. Since dissociated ions are solubilized by reverse micelles, the entropic incentive to charge a particle surface is qualitatively changed from aqueous systems, and surface entropy plays an important role.
hsu2005.pdf
Hsu, M. F. ; Nikolaides, M. G. ; Dinsmore, A. D. ; Bausch, A. R. ; Gordon, V. D. ; Chen, X. ; Hutchinson, J. W. ; Weitz, D. A. Self-assembled shells composed of colloidal particles: Fabrication and characterization. Langmuir 2005, 21, 2963-2970. Publisher's VersionAbstract
We construct shells with tunable morphology and mechanical response with colloidal particles that self-assemble at the interface of emulsion droplets. Particles self-assemble to minimize the total interfacial energy, spontaneously forming a particle layer that encapsulates the droplets. We stabilize these layers to form solid shells at the droplet interface by aggregating the particles, connecting the particles with adsorbed polymer, or fusing the particles. These techniques reproducibly yield shells with controllable properties such as elastic moduli and breaking forces. To enable diffusive exchange through the particle shells, we transfer them into solvents that are miscible with the encapsulant. We characterize the mechanical properties of the shells by measuring the response to deformation by calibrated microcantilevers.
hsu2005.pdf
Hashmi, S. M. ; Wickman, H. H. ; Weitz, D. A. Tetrahedral calcite crystals facilitate self-assembly at the air-water interface. Physical Review E 2005, 72, 041605. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Calcite crystals often nucleate and grow in solutions of calcium carbonate, and these crystallites can become trapped at the air water interface, where they form unusual structures. The most common is a fractal structure, which can extend over a large fraction of the interface, and whose origin is understood in terms of the aggregation of the particles. Much more rarely, a different and entirely unexpected structure is observed: the particles remain well separated on the interface, forming an ordered phase reminiscent of a two-dimensional colloidal crystal. The structure of the crystallites that form this ordered phase is always observed to be tetrahedral, in contrast to the much more common rhombohedral structure of the crystallites that form the fractal phase. We show that the interparticle interaction potential that leads to this ordered phase is a balance between a long-range attractive interaction and a long-range repulsive interaction. The attraction results from gravity-induced capillary forces, while the repulsion results from a dipole-dipole interaction due to the charged surface of the tetrahedral crystals. The interaction potential is estimated from the thermal motion of the particles, and fits to the theoretically expected values suggest that the effective surface charge on the tetrahedral crystals is sigma similar to 0.01 charges/nm(2).
hashmi2005.pdf
Fernandez-Nieves, A. ; Cristobal, G. ; Garces-Chavez, V. ; Spalding, G. C. ; Dholakia, K. ; Weitz, D. A. Optically anisotropic colloids of controllable shape. Advanced Materials 2005, 17, 680-684. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Solid spheres, disks, and ellipsoids with micrometer-scale bipolar anisotropic character respond to external electric fields by aligning their mean optical axes parallel to the field. The monodisperse, optically anisotropic colloids (see Figure) are synthesized by photopolymerization of a monodisperse liquid-crystal emulsion after mechanical deformation of the drops.
fernandez-nieves2005.pdf
Dasgupta, B. R. ; Weitz, D. A. Microrheology of cross-linked polyacrylamide networks. Physical Review E 2005, 71, 021504. Publisher's VersionAbstract
Experiments investigating the local viscoelastic properties of a chemically cross-linked polymer are performed on polyacrylamide solutions in the sol and the gel regimes using polystyrene beads of varying sizes and surface chemistry as probes. The thermal motions of the probes are measured to obtain the elastic and viscous moduli of the sample. Probe dynamics are measured using two different dynamic light scattering techniques, diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) and quasielastic light scattering (QELS) as well as video-based particle tracking. Diffusing wave spectroscopy probes the short-time dynamics of the scatterers while QELS measures the dynamics at larger times. Video-based particle tracking provides a way to investigate the local environment of the individual probe particles. A combination of all the techniques results in a larger range of frequencies that can be probed compared to conventional bulk measurements while providing local information at the level of individual probes. A modified algebraic form of the generalized Stokes-Einstein equation is used to calculate the frequency-dependent moduli. A comparison of microrheological measurements with bulk rheology exhibits striking similarity, confirming the applicability of microrheology for chemically cross-linked polymeric systems.
dasgupta2005.pdf
Conrad, J. C. ; Starr, F. W. ; Weitz, D. A. Weak correlations between local density and dynamics near the glass transition. Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2005, 109, 21235-21240. Publisher's VersionAbstract
We perform experiments on two different dense colloidal suspensions with confocal microscopy to probe the relationship between local structure and dynamics near the glass transition. We calculate the Voronoi volume 19 for our particles and show that this quantity is not a universal probe of glassy structure for all colloidal suspensions. We correlate the Voronoi volume to displacement and find that these quantities are only weakly correlated. We observe qualitatively similar results in a simulation of a polymer melt. These results suggest that the Voronoi volume does not predict dynamical behavior in experimental colloidal suspensions; a purely 44 structural approach based on local single particle volume likely cannot describe the colloidal glass transition.
conrad2005.pdf
Bursac, P. ; Lenormand, G. ; Fabry, B. ; Oliver, M. ; Weitz, D. A. ; Viasnoff, V. ; Butler, J. P. ; Fredberg, J. J. Cytoskeletal remodelling and slow dynamics in the living cell. Nature Materials 2005, 4 557-561. Publisher's VersionAbstract

The cytoskeleton (CSK) is a crowded network of structural proteins that stabilizes cell shape and drives cell motions. Recent studies on the dynamics of the CSK have established that a wide variety of cell types exhibit rheology in which responses are not tied to any particular relaxation times and are thus scale-free1,2,3,4. Scale-free rheology is often found in a class of materials called soft glasses5, but not all materials expressing scale-free rheology are glassy (see plastics, wood, concrete or some metals for example)6. As such, the extent to which dynamics of the CSK might be regarded as glassy remained an open question. Here we report both forced and spontaneous motions of microbeads tightly bound to the CSK of human muscle cells. Large oscillatory shear fluidized the CSK matrix, which was followed by slow scale-free recovery of rheological properties (aging). Spontaneous bead motions were subdiffusive at short times but superdiffusive at longer times; intermittent motions reflecting nanoscale CSK rearrangements depended on both the approach to kinetic arrest and energy release due to ATP hydrolysis. Aging, intermittency, and approach to kinetic arrest establish a striking analogy between the behaviour of the living CSK and that of inert non-equilibrium systems, including soft glasses, but with important differences that are highly ATP-dependent. These mesoscale dynamics link integrative CSK functions to underlying molecular events, and represent an important intersection of topical issues in condensed matter physics and systems biology.

bursac2005.pdf