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Shape-recovering liquids

Nature Physics (2025)Cite this article

Abstract

Binding particles to an interface between immiscible liquids to reduce interfacial tension underpins the emulsification and phase behaviour of composite liquid systems. Nevertheless, we found that the strong binding and two-dimensional assembly of ferromagnetic particles at a liquid–liquid interface not only suppresses emulsification but also increases interfacial tension. Consequently, the particle-stabilized interface in a cylindrical vessel rapidly and reproducibly adopts the shape of a Grecian urn after vigorous agitation. The suppression of emulsification, the rapid formation of a stable, non-planar equilibrium interface shape and the increase in interfacial tension all originate from attractive in-plane dipolar magnetic interactions between the particles.

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Fig. 1: Schematic and macroscopic response of ferromagnetic particles at a liquid–liquid interface.
Fig. 2: Interfacial assembly of magnetic particles and the resulting interfacial tension.
Fig. 3: Mixed-particle emulsions.
Fig. 4: Response of urn shape to vial properties and liquid volumes.

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Data availability

All relevant data are included in the paper and the Supplementary Information.

Code availability

All code used for analysis and simulation is presented in the Supplementary Information.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (Grant Number DMR-2104883) and the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division (Contract Number DE-AC02-05-CH11231) within the Adaptive Interfacial Assemblies Towards Structuring Liquids programme (KCTR16). J.D.P. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (Grant Number DMR-2318680). C.J. and T.J.A. acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (Grant Number ACI-2003820). H.N.K. acknowledges financial support from the University of Massachusetts Amherst for starting faculty support. We thank B. Davidovich and A. Dinsmore of the Physics Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for insightful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Anthony Raykh, Alex McGlasson, David A. Hoagland & Thomas P. Russell

  2. Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Anthony Raykh & Hima Nagamanasa Kandula

  3. Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA

    Joseph D. Paulsen

  4. Department of Physics, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Chaitanya Joshi & Timothy J. Atherton

  5. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Thomas P. Russell

  6. Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Aoba, Sendai, Japan

    Thomas P. Russell

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  1. Anthony Raykh
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Contributions

A.R. performed all the experiments. A.R., D.A.H. and T.P.R. wrote the paper. J.D.P analysed the interface shape. A.M. assisted in developing the idea. C.J. and T.J.A. developed Morpho and performed the simulations of the NP-laden interface. The project began in the laboratories of H.N.K. and T.P.R. D.A.H. and T.P.R. supervised and directed the project. All authors commented on the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to David A. Hoagland or Thomas P. Russell.

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Nature Physics thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Calculation and simulation details, Supplementary Fig. 1, discussion, Table 1 and descriptions of Videos 1 and 2

Supplementary Video 1

Agitating a DCM–water mixture containing nickel particles to form DCM droplets dispersed in water. After agitation, these coalesce into container-sized liquid phases separated by an interface shaped like a Grecian urn.

Supplementary Video 2

A Grecian urn interface under a high frequency magnetic field (~50 Hz) visibly rotates under effects of the field. The shadow of a cluster of particles can be seen moving underneath the urn, highlighting the rotation. Of magnitude roughly 50 mT, the magnetic field was applied by a magnetic stir plate

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Raykh, A., Paulsen, J.D., McGlasson, A. et al. Shape-recovering liquids. Nat. Phys. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-02865-1

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