Scientific Highlights from Network Area 4 Archives

25 June 2026

Schematic illustration of the unconventional thermo-mechanical response of the DA equilibrium of humins and bismaleimide. Copyright: The authors. Published in Green Chem., 2026, 28, 6958 by The Royal Society of Chemistry 2026. This publication is licenced under CC BY-NC 3.0.

25 June 2026

New Value for Biorefinery Side Streams: Humins as Dynamic Polymer Network Precursors

Humins are a by-product of biomass processing that are typically regarded as low-value waste. Researchers at SoftComp partner KU Leuven in The Netherlands now demonstrate that these furan-rich materials can directly serve as... (Read more)

8 June 2026

Schematic illustrating the influence of pH on the LLPS behaviour of tick salivary glycine-rich protein. Copyright: The Authors. Published in Nandy et. al, Advanced Functional Materials (2025) by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This publication is licensed under CC-BY 4.0 .

8 June 2026

New Tricks from Ticks: How pH Shapes Biomolecular Condensates

Biomolecular condensates formed by liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of biopolymers are increasingly recognised as fundamental components in biological systems, not only for intracellular signaling and functions, but also for extracellular secretory fluids of... (Read more)

12 May 2026

A liquid drop impacting a rigid non-wetting substrate starts spreading laterally (top column), whereas an elastic sphere deforms slightly and bounces off (bottom column). A new work bridges these two limits and offers a general framework for liquid-to-elastic transitions. Image copyright: Front cover image from S. Jana et al., Soft Matter 22, 2226-2236 (2026), https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SM01078K licensed under CC BY 3.0 by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

12 May 2026

Impact with Memory: How Soft Materials Bridge Liquids and Elastics

Even a familiar phenomenon like a bounce can reveal new insights into the properties of soft matter, as a new study by researchers from, among others, the SoftComp partner Durham University, UK, demonstrates... (Read more)

11 December 2025

Fig.1 Sketch of the damage mechanism. Copyright: Donghao Zhao. All right reserved.

11 December 2025

Why We Can Cut Rubber Easier Than We Tear It

Ever wonder why it's so much easier to cut a tough material like rubber or leather with a sharp knife than it is to rip or tear it with your hands? Researchers from... (Read more)