arXiv subjects

Eric M. Stewart

Publications and source records attributed to Eric M. Stewart.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Magnetically Responsive Microprintable Soft Nanocomposites with Tunable Nanoparticle Loading

Magnetic remote actuation of soft materials is attractive for applications such as transforming materials and medical robots. However, due to manufacturing limitations, microscale magnetoactive devices are scarce -- light-based additive manufacturing methods, despite achieving microscale resolution, struggle with particle-induced light scattering. Moreover, large hard-magnetic microparticles restrict ultimate feature sizes, and deformation of soft-magnetic nanoparticle composites requires impractically high loading and field gradients. Among successfully fabricated microscale soft-magnetic composites, limited control over particle loading, distribution, and matrix-phase stiffness has hindered their functionality. Here, we combine two-photon polymerization with iron oxide nanoparticle coprecipitation to fabricate 3D-printed microscale nanocomposites with spatially tunable nanoparticle distribution. We control nanoparticle content by locally modulating the two-photon dose, imbuing parts with varied magnetic functionality and achieving millimeter-scale elastic deformations, demonstrated by a soft robotic gripper and a bistable bit register and sensor. Our approach enables precise control of mechanical and magnetic properties towards microscale metamaterial and robotics applications.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2023

An interpenetrating-network theory of cytoplasm

Under many physiological and pathological conditions such as division and migration, cells undergo dramatic deformations, under which their mechanical integrity is supported by cytoskeletal networks (i.e. intermediate filaments, F-actin, and microtubules). Recent observations of cytoplasmic microstructure indicate interpenetration among different cytoskeletal networks, and micromechanical experiments have shown evidence of complex characteristics in the mechanical response of the interpenetrating cytoplasmic networks of living cells, including viscoelastic, nonlinear stiffening, microdamage, and healing characteristics. However, a theoretical framework describing such a response is missing, and thus it is not clear how different cytoskeletal networks with distinct mechanical properties come together to build the overall complex mechanical features of cytoplasm. In this work, we address this gap by developing a finite-deformation continuum-mechanical theory with a multi-branch visco-hyperelastic constitutive relation coupled with phase-field damage and healing. The proposed interpenetrating-network model elucidates the coupling among interpenetrating cytoskeletal components, and the roles of finite elasticity, viscoelastic relaxation, damage, and healing in the experimentally-observed mechanical response of interpenetrating-network eukaryotic cytoplasm.

physics.bio-ph↗