{"id":217089,"date":"2025-07-03T06:22:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T11:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/shape-shifting-particles-allow-temperature-control-over-fluid-flow-and-stiffness"},"modified":"2025-07-03T06:22:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T11:22:06","slug":"shape-shifting-particles-allow-temperature-control-over-fluid-flow-and-stiffness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/shape-shifting-particles-allow-temperature-control-over-fluid-flow-and-stiffness","title":{"rendered":"Shape-shifting particles allow temperature control over fluid flow and stiffness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/shape-shifting-particles-allow-temperature-control-over-fluid-flow-and-stiffness2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Imagine a liquid that flows freely one moment, then stiffens into a near-solid the next, and then can switch back with a simple change in temperature. Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and NYU Tandon have now developed such a material, using tiny particles that can change their shape and stiffness on demand.<\/p>\n<p>Their <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/research+paper\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">research paper<\/a>, \u201cTunable shear thickening, aging, and rejuvenation in suspensions of shape-memory endowed liquid crystalline particles,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2425373122\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/i>, demonstrates a new way to regulate how dense suspensions\u2014mixtures of solid particles in a fluid\u2014behave under stress.<\/p>\n<p>These new particles are made from liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), a material that combines the structure of liquid crystals with the flexibility of rubber. When heated or cooled, the particles change shape: they soften and become round at higher temperatures, and stiffen into irregular, angular forms at lower ones. This change has a dramatic effect on how the <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/suspension\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">suspension<\/a> flows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine a liquid that flows freely one moment, then stiffens into a near-solid the next, and then can switch back with a simple change in temperature. Researchers at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and NYU Tandon have now developed such a material, using tiny particles that can change their shape and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,269,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engineering","category-life-extension","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}