Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Physicists Achieve Success with Shape-Shifting Water Droplets

Friday, March 11, 2016, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Arts and Sciencesresearch

Physicists in the College of Arts and Sciences are close to figuring out how to make biologically inspired robots that can change shape according to their environment.

Sheets of liquid droplets can spontaneously and reversibly change their shape.

Sheets of liquid droplets can spontaneously and reversibly change their shape.

A team of researchers, led by Mark Bowick, professor of physics and director of the University’s Soft Matter Program, has demonstrated how sheets of liquid drops can spontaneously and reversibly change their shape. Their findings are the subject of an article in Physical Review Letters (American Physical Society, 2016) and a Synopsis at http://physics.aps.org.

The article is co-authored by Bowick; Jennifer Schwarz, assistant professor of physics; Tao Zhang G’15, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. alumnus of Syracuse; and Duanduan Wan, a Ph.D. candidate at Syracuse.

“Just as robots are able to pick up things and then put them down [a behavior known as reversibility], we’ve designed and modeled a three-dimensional network of water droplets to do the same,” says Bowick, an expert in condensed matter theory and mathematical physics. “Through biological self-assembly, we’ve been able to create wild and wonderful shapes, like the petals of a flower or the body of a snake, starting with entirely flat layers. Reversibility is engineered by introducing an osmotic interaction to the network.”

physicspeepsThe implications for soft robotics—“a first-generation soft robot that can grab its load, squeeze into a tight space and unload, repeatedly,” Bowick adds—are significant, possibly surpassing the capabilities of conventional hard robotics.

Underpinning such work is self-assembly, the process by which smaller components organize into ordered structures. Drawing on previous experiments, in which biologists have shown how micron-sized droplets self-assemble into various shapes, Bowick and his colleagues devised a theoretical emulsion by immersing water droplets in oil. The result was something like mayonnaise, but with droplets of water instead of oil.

Conjoined by permeable lipid molecules, the droplets formed a tissue-like structure. Salt was then added to create osmotic pressure, causing the sheets of droplets to fold into various three-dimensional structures.

“By swelling some of the droplets and shrinking others, the droplets morphed in size, and the entire network shifted its shape,” Bowick says. “Such shape-shifting is the next important step toward osmotic robotics in this system.”

Syracuse researchers focused their attention on a four-petal design that spontaneously folded to produce a hollow sphere. They also demonstrated how to reverse the shape change by placing the sphere within a liquid with a higher solute concentration.

“The droplets in the folding sphere lost water and shrank, causing the hollow sphere to unfold back to its original shape,” Bowick adds.

Duanduan Wang, left, and Tao Zhang G'15

Duanduan Wang, left, and Tao Zhang G’15

The renowned physicist says the experience has been “thoroughly collaborative,” and included three years of “intense” weekly meetings. He reserves special praise for Wan and Zhang: “They made it possible by their dedication to this long and ambitious project.”

Based in the Department of Physics, members of the Soft Matter Program explore the science of easily deformable matter, including liquids, colloids, polymers, foams, gels, granular materials and various biological materials. The program is co-organizing a multinational conference titled “Active and Smart Matter: A New Frontier for Science and Engineering,” running June 20-23.

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • Graduate Students Bring Physics to Local Classrooms With Outreach Program
    Friday, May 27, 2022, By Dan Bernardi
  • COVID-19 Update: Effective Wednesday, June 1, Masking Level Returns to Yellow
    Friday, May 27, 2022, By News Staff
  • Preparing Students for a Life of Success
    Friday, May 27, 2022, By Caroline K. Reff
  • Alumni Draw on Their Military Experience in Their Roles as Teachers
    Thursday, May 26, 2022, By Martin Walls
  • Bringing ‘CSI’ Into the Classroom
    Thursday, May 26, 2022, By Dan Bernardi

More In STEM

Graduate Students Bring Physics to Local Classrooms With Outreach Program

“When am I ever going to use this in real life?” That is the oft-heard refrain from middle- and high-school science students, struggling through labs and formulas that feel as far removed from their day-to-day as, well, space travel. Sarthak…

Bringing ‘CSI’ Into the Classroom

Dusting for fingerprints, documenting blood stain patterns and measuring bullet trajectory—you might think this is a description of a recent episode from the popular television series “CSI.” While this may be true, these are also the daily lessons students are…

Matt Cufari Named as a 2022-23 Astronaut Scholar

Matt Cufari, a senior physics major in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), a computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, a Coronat Scholar and a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program, has…

Dean Rajiv ‘Raj’ Dewan to Step Down as Dean of the School of Information Studies

Rajiv “Raj” Dewan, dean of the School of Information Studies, has announced he will conclude his deanship on June 30, 2022. Dewan plans to return to full-time faculty duties while continuing his research. David Seaman, dean of Syracuse University Libraries…

Biology and Earth and Environmental Sciences Departments Come Together on Diversity and Engagement Initiatives

In 1948, Professor James Hope Birnie became Syracuse University’s first African American faculty member in biology, teaching here until 1951. He was also one of its first biology faculty members to be supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)….

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2022 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.