Publications

Below is a list of recent publications from our lab. You can also find our work on: Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and ORCiD. * indicates equal contributions. † indicates corresponding author(s). Bold indicates graduate students. Italics indicates undergraduate students.

Cover Features

Elucidating the role of physicochemical interactions on gel rheology, Soft Matter, 2024.
Nanoparticle transport in biomimetic polymer-linked emulsions, AIChE Journal, 2024
Simple production of cellulose nanofibril microcapsules and the rheology of their suspensions, Soft Matter, 2021
Soft interactions modify the diffusive dynamics of polymer-grafted nanoparticles in solutions of free polymer, ACS Macro Letters, 2019.
Orientational binding modes of reporters in a viral-nanoparticle lateral-flow assay, Analyst, 2017.

2025

  1. M. Haji Rezaei, A. Ferreira, M. Campbell, D. Ghosh, K. Alkhoury, Z. Lyakhovych, E. Mathiowitz, V. Srivastava, and R. Poling-Skutvik†. Environmental aging of polymers to evaluate their potential for remediating natural gas pipelines.  Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2025. Just Accepted. [DOI] [PDF].
  1. D. P. Keane, K. M. Kamani, E. Nikoumanesh, S. Rogers,† and R. Poling-Skutvik†. Universal Relationship between Linear Elasticity and Nonlinear Yielding in Soft Materials. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2025. 134, (20), 208202. [DOI] [PDF].
    • Featured as a PRL Editors’ Suggestion
    • Featured in APS Physics Focus (link)
    • Featured on Phys.org (link)
    • Featured in Science News Today (link)

2024

  1. S. B. Kotkar, R. Poling-Skutvik, M. P. Howard, A. Nikoubashman, J. C. Conrad,† and J. C. Palmer†. Dynamics of Nanoparticles in Solutions of Semiflexible Ring Polymers. J. Phys. Chem. B. 2024. 128, (50), 12586-12596. [DOI] [PDF].
    • Featured in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B Special Issue “Athanassios Z. Panagiotopoulos Festschrift”
  1. D. P. Keane, T. Kolozsvary, Benjamin McDonald,† and R. Poling-Skutvik†. Bottlebrush Midblocks Promote Colloidal Bridging of Telechelic Polymers. ACS Macro Lett. 2024. 13, (10), 1304-1310. [DOI] [PDF].
  1. E. Nikoumanesh, C. J. Jouaneh, and R. Poling-Skutvik†. Elucidating the Role of Physicochemical Interactions on Gel Rheology. Soft Matter. 2024. 20, (20), 7094-7102. [DOI] [PDF].
    • Featured in the Soft Matter Emerging Investigators Series (link)
    • Featured in the Colloidal interactions, dynamics and rheology themed collection (link)
    • Featured on the Front Cover (link)
  1. R. Kumar†, A. H. Slim, A. Faraone, J.-M. Y. Carrillo, R. Poling-Skutvik, M. Muthukumar, A. B. Marciel, and J. C. Conrad†. Pivotal Roles of Triple Screening – Topological, Electrostatic, and Hydrodynamic – On Dynamics in Semidilute Polymer Solutions. Macromolecules. 2024. (57), 6, 2888–2896. [DOI] [PDF].
  1. D. P. Keane, C. J. Constantine, M. D. Mellor, and R. Poling-Skutvik†. Nanoparticle transport in biomimetic polymer-linked emulsions. AIChE J. 2024. e18307. [DOI] [PDF].

2023

  1. S. B. Kotkar, M. P. Howard, A. Nikoubashman, J. C. Conrad,† R. Poling-Skutvik,† and J. C. Palmer†. Confined Dynamics in Spherical Polymer Brushes. ACS Macro Lett. 2023. (12), 1503-1509. [DOI] [PDF].
  1. E. Nikoumanesh and R. Poling-Skutvik†. The effect of thixotropy on the yield transition in reversible, colloidal gels. J. Chem. Phys.2023. 159, 044905. [DOI] [PDF].
    • Featured in the JCP Emerging Investigators Special Collection (link)
  1. D. P. Keane, C. J. Constantine, M. D. Mellor, and R. Poling-Skutvik†. Bridging Heterogeneity Dictates the Microstructure and Yielding Response of Polymer-Linked Emulsions. Langmuir. 2023. 39 (22), 7852-7862. [DOI] [PDF].

2022

  1. A. H. Slim, W. H. Shi, F. S. Samghabadi, A. Faraone, A. B. Marciel,† R. Poling-Skutvik,† and J. C. Conrad.† Electrostatic Repulsion Slows Relaxations of Polyelectrolytes in Semidilute Solutions. ACS Macro Lett. 2022. (11) 7, 854-860. [DOI] [PDF].
  1. S. K. Rereddy, A. C. Cao,† B. Blackwell, R. Poling-Skutvik, P. E. Arratia, and N. Mirza. Rheology of saliva in health and disease. Biorheology. 2022. 59 (1-2), 19-27. [DOI] [PDF].
  1. D. P. Keane, M. D. Mellor, and R. Poling-Skutvik†. Responsive Telechelic Block Copolymers for Enhancing the Elasticity of Nanoemulsions. ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2022, 5 (5), 5934-5943. [DOI] [PDF].
    • Featured in the ACS Applied Nano Materials Early Career Forum

2021

  1. R. Chen*, S. B. Kotkar*, R. Poling-Skutvik, M. P. Howard, A. Nikoubashman, J. C. Conrad†, and J. C. Palmer†. Nanoparticle dynamics in semidilute polymer solutions: rings versus linear chains. J. Rheol., 2021, 65 (4), 745–755. [DOI] [PDF].
  1. M. Smith, R. Poling-Skutvik, A. H. Slim, R. C. Willson†, and J. C. Conrad†. Dynamics of Flexible Viruses in Polymer Solutions. Macromolecules. 2021, 54 (10), 4557–4563 [DOI] [PDF].
  1. U. R. Gabinet, C. Lee, R. Poling-Skutvik, D. Keane, N. K. Kim, R. Dong, Z. Vicars, Y. Cai, A. U. Thosar, A. Grun, S. M. Thompson, A. J. Patel, C. R. Kagan, R. J. Composto, and C. O. Osuji†. Nanocomposites of 2D-MoS 2 Exfoliated in Thermotropic Liquid Crystals. ACS Mater. Lett. 2021, 3 (6), 704–712. [DOI] [PDF].
  1. Y. Zhang, R. Dong, U. R. Gabinet, R. Poling-Skutvik, N. K. Kim, C. Lee, O. Q. Imran, X. Feng, and C. O. Osuji†. Rapid Fabrication by Lyotropic Self-Assembly of Thin Nanofiltration Membranes with Uniform 1 Nanometer Pores. ACS Nano. 2021. 15 (5), 8192–8203. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. A. P. Dhand, R. Poling-Skutvik†, and C. O. Osuji†. Simple production of cellulose nanofibril microcapsules and the rheology of their suspensions. Soft Matter. 2021. 17 (17), 4517–4524. [DOI] [PDF]

2020

  1. R. Poling-Skutvik, E. McEvoy, V. Shenoy, and C. O. Osuji†. Yielding and bifurcated aging in nanofibrillar networks. Phys. Rev. Mat. 2020, 4 (10), 102601. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. A. H. Slim, R. Poling-Skutvik, and J. C. Conrad†. Local confinement controls diffusive nanoparticle dynamics in semidilute polyelectrolyte solutions. Langmuir. 2020, 36 (31), 9153-9159. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. R. Poling-Skutvik*, X. Di*, and C. O. Osuji†. Correlation of droplet elasticity and volume fraction effects on emulsion dynamics. Soft Matter. 2020, 16 (10), 2574-2580. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. J. Liu*, Y. Gao*, H. Wang, R. Poling-Skutvik, C. O. Osuji, and S. Yang†. Shaping and locomotion of soft robots using filament actuators made from liquid crystal elastomer-carbon nanotube composites. Adv. Intell. Syst. 2020, 2 (6), 1900163. [DOI] [PDF]

2019

  1. R. C. Roberts, R. Poling-Skutvik, J. C. Conrad†, and J. C. Palmer†. Tracer transport in attractive and repulsive supercooled liquids and glasses. J. Chem. Phys. 2019, 151 (19), 194501. [DOI] [PDF]
    • Selected as an Editor’s Pick
  1. R. Poling-Skutvik, A. H. Slim, S. Narayanan, J. C. Conrad†, and R. Krishnamoorti†. Soft interactions modify the diffusive dynamics of polymer-grafted nanoparticles in solutions of free polymer. ACS Macro Lett. 2019, 8 (8), 917-922. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. R. Poling-Skutvik, R. C. Roberts, A. H. Slim, S. Narayanan, R. Krishnamoorti, J. C. Palmer†, and J. C. Conrad†. Structure dominates localization of tracers within aging nanoparticle glasses. J. Phys. Chem Lett. 2019, 10 (8), 1784-1789. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. R. Chen, R. Poling-Skutvik, M. P. Howard, A. Nikoubashman, S. Egorov, J. C. Conrad, J. C. Palmer†. Influence of polymer flexibility on nanoparticle dynamics in semidilute solutions. Soft Matter. 2019,15 (6), 1260–1268. [DOI] [PDF]

2018

  1. V. Goel, J. Pietrasik, R. Poling-Skutvik, A. Jackson, K. Matyjaszewski, and R. Krishnamoorti†. Structure of block copolymer grafted silica nanoparticles. Polymer. 2018, 159, 138–145. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. K.I.S. Mongcopa*, R. Poling-Skutvik*, R. Ashkar, P. Butler, and R. Krishnamoorti†. Conformational change and suppression of the Θ-temperature for solutions of polymer grafted nanoparticle. Soft Matter 2018, 14 (29), 6102–6108. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. R.C. Roberts, R. Poling-Skutvik, J.C. Palmer†, and J.C. Conrad†. Tracer transport probes relaxation and structure of attractive and repulsive glassy liquids. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2018, 9 (11), 3008-3013. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. J.C. Conrad† and R. Poling-Skutvik. Confined flow: consequences and implications for bacteria and biofilms. Annu. Rev. Chem. Biomol. Eng. 2018, 9 (1), 175-200. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. R. Chen*, R. Poling-Skutvik*, A. Nikoubashman, M.P. Howard, J.C. Conrad, and J.C. Palmer†. Coupling of nanoparticle dynamics to polymer center-of-mass motion in semidilute polymer solutions.  Macromolecules, 2018, 51 (5), 1865–1872. [DOI] [PDF]
  1. R. Poling-Skutvik, J. Lee, S. Narayanan, R. Krishnamoorti†, and J.C. Conrad†. “Tunable assembly of gold nanorods in polymer solutions to generate controlled nanostructured materials.” ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2018, 1 (2), 877–885. [DOI] [PDF]

2017

  1. R. Poling-Skutvik, K.N. Olafson, S. Narayanan, L. Stingaciu, A. Faraone, J.C. Conrad†, and R. Krishnamoorti†. Confined dynamics of grafted polymer chains in solutions of linear polymer. Macromolecules. 50, 7372 (2017). [DOI] [PDF]
  1. M.S .Safari, R. Poling-Skutvik, P.G. Vekilov†, and J.C. Conrad†. “Differential dynamic microscopy of bidisperse colloidal suspensions.” npj Microgravity 3, 1 (2017). [DOI] [PDF]
  1. J. Kim, R. Poling-Skutvik, J. R. C. Trabuco, K. Kourentzi, R. C. Willson, and J. C. Conrad†. “Orientational binding modes of reporters in a viral-nanoparticle lateral-flow assay.” Analyst 142, 55 (2017). [DOI] [PDF]

2016

  1. R. Poling-Skutvik, K. I. S. Mongcopa, A. Faraone, S. Narayanan, J. C. Conrad†, and R. Krishnamoorti†. “Structure and dynamics of interacting nanoparticles in semidilute polymer solutions.” Macromolecules 49, 6568 (2016). [DOI] [PDF]
  1. M. S. Safari, M. A. Vorontsova, R. Poling-Skutvik, P. G. Vekilov†, and J. C. Conrad†. “Differential dynamic microscopy of weakly scattering and polydisperse protein-rich clusters.” Phys. Rev. E 92, 42712 (2015). [DOI] [PDF]

2015

  1. R. Poling-Skutvik, R. Krishnamoorti†, and J. C. Conrad†. “Size-dependent dynamics of nanoparticles in unentangled polyelectrolyte solutions.” ACS Macro Lett. 4, 1169 (2015). [DOI] [PDF]

2014

  1. F. Babaye Khorasani, R. Poling-Skutvik, R. Krishnamoorti†, and J. C. Conrad†. “Mobility of nanoparticles in semidilute polyelectrolyte solutions.” Macromolecules 47, 5328 (2014). [DOI] [PDF]