Soft Matter

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)
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22 May 2026
A trapped air bubble deforms a draining liquid sheet, but the defect does not cross the rupture threshold. Surface tension pulls the cavity back together and the sheet heals. Image copyright: the authors, adapted figure 2(a,b) published in Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 054001 (2025), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.054001.
22 May 2026

Tiny Defects, Big Consequences: Why Micron-thick Films Tear Before Molecular Forces Matter

Thin liquid films often rupture while they are still a few microns thick—far earlier than classical theory predicts. This matters, for example, in the development of spray systems, foams or coatings. The key... (Read more)
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