Publications by Mathias Steinacher

Spray-Assisted Formation of Micrometer-Sized Emulsions

Emulsion drops with defined sizes are frequently used to conduct chemical reactions on picoliter scales or as templates to form microparticles. Despite tremendous progress that has been achieved in the production of emulsions, the high throughput formation ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2022

Load-bearing hydrogels ionically reinforced through competitive ligand exchanges

Esther Amstad, Matteo Hirsch, Ran Zhao, Mathias Steinacher

Fast advances in soft robotics and tissue engineering demand for new soft materials whose mechanical properties can be interchangeably and locally varied, thereby enabling, for example, the design of soft joints within an integral material. Inspired by nat ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2021

Fabrication of micrometer-sized drops as templates for particles

Mathias Steinacher

Drops are omnipresent in our daily life for example in the form of rain drops or as oil drops in a salad dressing. On a technological basis, drops can be used to conduct chemical or biological reactions. These drops often serve as templates to produce mate ...

EPFL2021

Monodisperse Selectively Permeable Hydrogel Capsules Made from Single Emulsion Drops

Esther Amstad, Alexandre Louis André Persat, Huachuan Du, Mathias Steinacher, Alice Cont

Capsules are often used to protect chemical and biological entities from the environment, to control the timing and location of their release, or to facilitate the collection of waste. Their performance depends on the thickness and composition of their she ...

2021

Additives: Their Influence on the Humidity- and Pressure-Induced Crystallization of Amorphous CaCO3

Esther Amstad, Camelia Borca, Huachuan Du, Mathias Steinacher, Alan Böhlen, Clémence Courrégelongue

Nature possesses a unique control over the formation of CaCO3 crystals that imparts fascinating mechanical properties to many CaCO3-based biomaterials. This high level of control is, at least in part, achieved through the use of certain soluble additives t ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2020

Production of Additive‐Free Amorphous Nanoparticles with a SAW‐Based Microfluidic Spray‐Dryer

Esther Amstad, Huachuan Du, Mathias Steinacher, Duncan Christophe Emmanuel Gilbert

Spray‐drying is a widely employed, cost‐effective process to formulate solutions into solid particles of controlled sizes and compositions. In addition, this process can also offer control over the structure of spray‐dried particles: if the solvent is evap ...

Wiley2019

Amorphous CaCO3: Influence of the Formation Time on Its Degree of Hydration and Stability

Francesco Stellacci, Huachuan Du, Esther Amstad, Camelia Borca, Mathias Steinacher, Anna Murello

Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is one of the most abundant biominerals that is prevalent in rocks and often used as a structural material in marine animals. Many of these natural CaCO3-based materials display excellent mechanical properties that are difficult t ...

2018

Fabrication of Hexagonal-Prismatic Granular Hydrogel Sheets

Esther Amstad, Huachuan Du, Mathias Steinacher, Alice Cont

Natural soft materials are often composed of proteins that self-assemble into well-defined structures and display mechanical properties that cannot be matched by manmade materials. These materials are frequently mimicked with hydrogels whose mechanical pro ...

2018

Production of monodisperse drops from viscous fluids

Esther Amstad, Mathias Steinacher, Tomasz Radoslaw Szymborski, Armend Gazmeno Hati

Drops are often used as picoliter-sized reaction vessels, for example for high-throughput screening assays, or as templates to produce particles of controlled sizes and compositions. Many of these applications require close control over the size of drops, ...

2018