Group on Intelligent Design of Autonomous Materials
at HKUST

​Selected Publications

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 Preprint: ​

• Line Defects in Nematic Liquid Crystals as Charged Superelastic Rods with Negative Stretch-Twist Coupling

      Shengzhu Yi*, Hao Chen*, Xinyu Wang, Miao Jiang, Bo Li, Qi-huo Wei# and Rui Zhang#

      in revision, arXiv.

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2024:​

• Symmetry Breaking of Self-Propelled Topological Defects in Thin-film Active Chiral Nematics

      Weiqiang Wang, Haijie Ren and Rui Zhang#

      Physical Review Letters 132, 038301 (2024).​

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• Chiral Active Particles are Sensitive Reporters to Environmental Geometry

      Chung Wing Chan*, Daihui Wu*, Kaiyao Qiao, Kin Long Fong, Zhiyu Yang, Yilong Han and Rui Zhang#

      Nature Communications 15, 1406 (2024), arXiv. Featured in “Applied physics and mathematics” by Nature Communications.

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• Moiré Effect Enables Versatile Design of Topological Defects in Nematic Liquid Crystals

      Xinyu Wang*, Jinghua Jiang*, Juan Chen*, Asilehan Zhawure, Wentao Tang, Chenhui Peng# and Rui Zhang#

      Nature Communications 15, 1655 (2024).

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• Flow-Induced Periodic Chiral Structures in an Achiral Nematic Liquid Crystal

      Qing Zhang*#, Weiqiang Wang*, Shuang Zhou, Rui Zhang# and Irmgard Bischofberger#

      Nature Communications 15, 7 (2024). Reported by MIT News, and featured in “Applied physics and mathematics” by Nature Communications.

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• Machine Eye for Defects: Machine Learning-Based Solution to Identify and Characterize Topological Defects in Textured Images of Nematic Materials

      Haijie Ren, Weiqiang Wang, Wentao Tang and Rui Zhang#

      Phys. Rev. Research, in press (2024), arXiv.​

​

2023:​

• Structures, Thermodynamics and Dynamics of Topological Defects in Gay-Berne Nematic Liquid Crystals 

      Yulu Huang, Weiqiang Wang, Jonathan K. Whitmer and Rui Zhang#

      Soft Matter 19, 483-496 (2023).​

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• Collective Transport and Reconfigurable Assembly of Nematic Colloids by Light-Driven Cooperative Molecular Reorientations 

      Jinghua Jiang*, Xinyu Wang*, Oluwafemi Issac Akomolafe*, Wentao Tang, Asilehan Zhawure, 

      Kamal Ranabhat, Rui Zhang# and Chenhui Peng#

      Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 120 (16) e2221718120 (2023).​

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• Autonomous Waves and Global Motion Modes in Elastic Active Solids 

      Haoran Xu, Yulu Huang, Rui Zhang and Yilin Wu

       Nature Physics 19, 46-51 (2023). Reported in Nature News & Views.

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• Dendritic Patterns From Shear-Enhanced Anisotropy in Nematic Liquid Crystals 

      Qing Zhang, Shuang Zhou, Rui Zhang and Irmgard Bischofberger

      Science Advances 9, eabq6820 (2023).

 

2022:

• Active Transformations of Topological Structures in Light-Driven Nematic Disclination Networks 

       Jinghua Jiang*, Kamal Ranabhat*, Xinyu Wang*, Hailey Rich, Rui Zhang# and Chenhui Peng#

      Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 119 (23) e2122226119 (2022).

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• Logic Operations with Active Topological Defects 

      Rui Zhang#, Ali Mozaffari and Juan J. de Pablo#

       Science Advances 8, eabg9060 (2022). Reported in Croucher, UChicago News, EurekAlert, Deeptech, iScientist.

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• Topological Defect-Mediated Morphodynamics of Active-Active Interfaces 

      De-Qing Zhang, Peng-Cheng Chen, Zhong-Yi Li, Rui Zhang and Bo Li

       Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 119 (50) e2122494119 (2022).

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• Capillary Flow Characterizations of Chiral Nematic Cellulose Nanocrystal Suspensions

      Mohsen Esmaeili, Kyle George, Gelareh Rezvan, Nader Taheri-Qazvini, Rui Zhang# and Monirosadat Sadati#

      Langmuir 38 (7) 2192–2204 (2022). Featured in Cover.

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• The Fate of Liquid Crystal Topological Defects on Chemically Patterned Surfaces during Phase Transitions

      Tejal Pawale*, Shengzhu Yi*, Xiaowei Wang, Rui Zhang# and Xiao Li#

      Soft Matter 18, 5939–5948 (2022). Featured in Cover.

​

• Catapulting of topological defects through elasticity bands in active nematics

      Nitin Kumar*, Rui Zhang*, Steven A. Redford*, Juan J. de Pablo and Margaret L. Gardel#

      Soft Matter 18, 5271–5281 (2022).

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2021:

• Spatiotemporal Control of Liquid Crystal Structure and Dynamics Through Activity Patterning

      Rui Zhang*, Steven Redford*, Paul Ruijrok, Nitin Kumar, Ali Mozaffari, Sasha Zemsky, Aaron Dinner, Vincenzo Vitelli,

       Zev Bryant, Margaret Gardel and Juan J. de Pablo

       Nature Materials 20, 875–882 (2021). Reported by UChicago PME News, HKUST News.

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• Autonomous Materials Systems From Active Liquid Crystals

      Rui Zhang*, Ali Mozaffari* and Juan J. de Pablo
       Nature Reviews Materials 6, 437–453 (2021).

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• Interplay of Active Stress and Driven Flow in Self-Assembled, Tumbling Active Nematics

      Weiqiang Wang and Rui Zhang#

       Crystals 11, 1071 (2021), invited article.

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• Structures and Topological Defects in Pressure-Driven Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid Crystals

       Qing Zhang*, Rui Zhang*, Baoliang Ge*, Zahi Yaqoob, Peter T. C. So and Irmgard Bischofberger

       Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 118 (35) e2108361118 (2021).

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• Defect Spirograph: Dynamical Behavior of Defects in Spatially Patterned Active Nematics

       Ali Mozaffari*, Rui Zhang*, Noe Atzin and Juan J. de Pablo

       Physical Review Letters 126, 227801 (2021).

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Prior to HKUST:

• Sculpting Stable Structures in Pure Liquids

       Tadej Emersic*, Rui Zhang*, Ziga Kos*, Simon Copar*, Natan Osterman, Juan J. de Pablo and Uros Tkalec

       Science Advances 5, eaav4283 (2019).

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• Emergence of Radial Tree of Elastic Bands in Active Nematics

       Andrey Sokolov*, Ali Mozaffari*, Rui Zhang*, Juan J. de Pablo and Alexey Snezhko

       Phys. Rev. X 9, 031014 (2019). Reported by UChicago PME News.

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• Interplay of Structure, Elasticity and Dynamics in Actin-Based Nematic Materials

      Rui Zhang*, Nitin Kumar*, Jennifer Ross, Margaret L. Gardel and Juan J. de Pablo

       Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 115 (2) E124-E133 (2018).

​

• Tunable Structure and Dynamics of Active Liquid Crystals

       Nitin Kumar*, Rui Zhang*, Juan J. de Pablo and Margaret L. Gardel

       Science Advances 4 (10), eaat7779 (2018).

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• Water Flux-Induced Reorientation of Liquid Crystals

       Hadi Ramezani-Dakhel, Monirosadat Sadati, Rui Zhang, Mohammad Rahimi, Khia Kurtenbach, Benoit Roux and Juan J. de Pablo

       ACS Central Science 3 (12), 1345 (2017). 

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• Dynamic Structure of Active Nematic Shells

      Rui Zhang, Ye Zhou, Mohammad Rahimi and Juan J. de Pablo

       Nature Communications 7, 13483 (2016). Reported by UChicago PME News; collected in Nature Research Topic "Active Matter".

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• Controlled Deformation of Vesicles by Flexible Structured Media

      Rui Zhang, Ye Zhou, Jose A. Martinez-Gonzalez, Juan P. Hernandez-Ortiz, Nicholas L. Abbott and Juan J. de Pablo

       Science Advances 2 (8), e1600978 (2016). Reported by UChicago News.

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• Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of Asymmetric Flow in Nematic Liquid Crystals with Finite Anchoring

      Rui Zhang, Tyler Roberts, Igor Aranson and Juan J. de Pablo

       J. Chem. Phys. 144, 084905 (2016).

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• Multiscale Liquid Drop Impact on Wettable and Textured Surfaces

      Rui Zhang, Samaneh Farokhirad, Taehun Lee and Joel Koplik

       Phys. Fluids 26, 082003 (2014).

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• Separation of Nanoparticles by Flow past a Patterned Substrate

      Rui Zhang and Joel Koplik

       Phys. Rev. E 85, 026314 (2012). Reported by APS synopsis.

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* equal contribution.

# corresponding author.

A full list of publications can be found here.

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