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Dispersions of weakly charged thermoresponsive microgels at high densities

Hildebrandt, M. ; Thuy, D. Pham ; Domgans, A. ; Scotti, A. LU orcid ; Prévost, S. ; Adhikari, M. ; Horbach, J. and Karg, M. (2025) In Soft Matter 21(31). p.6220-6233
Abstract

Poly-N-isopropylacrylamide-based microgels in aqueous dispersion exhibit a pronounced thermoresponse that allows to control their size and thus the volume fraction via temperature. Here, we study the phase behavior of aqueous dispersions of weakly charged microgels with small silica cores, employing different scattering techniques. From temperature- and concentration-dependent experiments in presence and absence of monovalent salt, we deduce phase diagrams. The central quantity to analyse the structure and thus the phase of the system is the static structure factor measured via small-angle scattering. As a reference, we also perform molecular dynamics computer simulations of systems of weakly charged particles, using a screened Coulomb... (More)

Poly-N-isopropylacrylamide-based microgels in aqueous dispersion exhibit a pronounced thermoresponse that allows to control their size and thus the volume fraction via temperature. Here, we study the phase behavior of aqueous dispersions of weakly charged microgels with small silica cores, employing different scattering techniques. From temperature- and concentration-dependent experiments in presence and absence of monovalent salt, we deduce phase diagrams. The central quantity to analyse the structure and thus the phase of the system is the static structure factor measured via small-angle scattering. As a reference, we also perform molecular dynamics computer simulations of systems of weakly charged particles, using a screened Coulomb (Yukawa) potential with a soft core to model the interactions between the microgels. For this model potential the phase diagram is known. By comparing structure factors determined by both experiment and simulation, we can assign the observed states of our soft model colloids to states in the Yukawa phase diagram.

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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Soft Matter
volume
21
issue
31
pages
14 pages
publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
external identifiers
  • pmid:40686098
  • scopus:105012532536
ISSN
1744-683X
DOI
10.1039/d5sm00464k
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e8c6a108-5f87-43e0-810d-370f495eaf1a
date added to LUP
2025-11-05 10:27:49
date last changed
2025-11-05 10:35:37
@article{e8c6a108-5f87-43e0-810d-370f495eaf1a,
  abstract     = {{<p>Poly-N-isopropylacrylamide-based microgels in aqueous dispersion exhibit a pronounced thermoresponse that allows to control their size and thus the volume fraction via temperature. Here, we study the phase behavior of aqueous dispersions of weakly charged microgels with small silica cores, employing different scattering techniques. From temperature- and concentration-dependent experiments in presence and absence of monovalent salt, we deduce phase diagrams. The central quantity to analyse the structure and thus the phase of the system is the static structure factor measured via small-angle scattering. As a reference, we also perform molecular dynamics computer simulations of systems of weakly charged particles, using a screened Coulomb (Yukawa) potential with a soft core to model the interactions between the microgels. For this model potential the phase diagram is known. By comparing structure factors determined by both experiment and simulation, we can assign the observed states of our soft model colloids to states in the Yukawa phase diagram.</p>}},
  author       = {{Hildebrandt, M. and Thuy, D. Pham and Domgans, A. and Scotti, A. and Prévost, S. and Adhikari, M. and Horbach, J. and Karg, M.}},
  issn         = {{1744-683X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{31}},
  pages        = {{6220--6233}},
  publisher    = {{Royal Society of Chemistry}},
  series       = {{Soft Matter}},
  title        = {{Dispersions of weakly charged thermoresponsive microgels at high densities}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d5sm00464k}},
  doi          = {{10.1039/d5sm00464k}},
  volume       = {{21}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}