We show that weak patchy attractions markedly slow down protein diffusion under conditions prevailing in living cells.

The equilibrium structural properties of suspensions of semiflexible polymers with attractive ends are investigated by mesoscale hydrodynamic simulations. The hybrid simulation approach combines the multiparticle collision dynamics method for the fluid with molecular dynamics simulations for the semiflexible polymers. In equilibrium, the linear polymers self-organize into scaffold-like network structures, which are governed by polymer flexibility and end-attraction strength. We investigate the appearing structures for various adhesive strengths and polymer stiffnesses. The morphology of the suspension changes abruptly when the end-attraction strength exceeds a critical value, and stiff polymers assemble more easily into scaffold-like networks than flexible polymers. These studies provide a deeper understanding of the network structure formation in complex materials.

It is well known that the coercivity of magnetic nanomaterials increases up to a maximum and then decreases to zero with decreasing particle size. However, until now, no single synthesis method has been able to produce magnetic nanoparticles with a wide range of sizes, i.e., from 10 to 500 nm, in order to uncover the coercivity evolution. Here we report the characterization of magnetite (Fe3O4) multi-granule nanoclusters (MGNCs) to demonstrate the transitional behaviour of coercivity. The M–H curves indicate that our samples had a relatively high saturation magnetization (MS) value of ~70 emu/g and that the coercivity (Hc) increased to the maximum value of ~48 Oe until the nanoclusters reached a size of ~120 nm; the coercivity then gradually decreased to zero.

The effect of a nonspherical particle shape on the dynamics in crowded solutions presents a significant challenge for a comprehensive understanding of interaction and structural relaxation in biological and soft matter. We report that small deviations from a spherical shape induce a nonmonotonic contribution to the crowding effect on the short-time cage diffusion compared with spherical systems, using molecular dynamics simulations with mesoscale hydrodynamics of a multiparticle collision dynamics fluid in semidilute systems with volume fractions smaller than 0.35. We show that the nonmonotonic effect due to anisotropy is caused by the combination of a reduced relative mobility over the entire concentration range and a looser and less homogeneous cage packing of nonspherical particles. Our finding stresses that nonsphericity induces new complexity, which cannot be accounted for in effective sphere models, and is of great interest in applications such as formulations as well as for the fundamental understanding of soft matter in general and crowding effects in living cells in particular.