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The thermosensitive behavior of microgel particles suspended in solvents, i.e. their temperature-dependent swelling properties, has triggered ongoing interest in industry and academia over the past forty years. The most-studied polymer is…
Poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) is a thermoresponsive polymer, an essential building block of a large family of soft smart materials. In neat water it undergoes upon heating at $\approx$305K a phase transition from swollen to collapsed…
The thermosensitivity and microstructure of microgels made by copolymerizing standard microgel-forming monomers with more hydrophilic comonomers is investigated, with the aim of increasing the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT). We…
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) is a synthetic polymer that is widely studied for its thermoresponsive character. However, recent works also reported evidence of a low temperature (protein-like) dynamical transition around 225 K in…
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) is a temperature-responsive polymer that undergoes large volumetric deformations through a transition from a swollen to a collapsed state at the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT). Locally, these…
Poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) phase diagram is explored in a wide range of temperature and pressure using extensive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. By exploiting a simple model of an atactic linear polymer chain, we provide…
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), PNIPAM, is a widely studied polymer, which serves as a key constituent of nanostructured soft materials with responsive properties. Upon increasing temperature the PNIPAM polymer chain undergoes a reversible…
In this work we use molecular simulations to examine methods of controlling mechanical properties of polymeric glass materials such as elastic moduli, mechanical heterogeneity as well as their glass transition temperature. We study filled…
Temperature-responsive properties of surface-attached poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) network films with well-controlled chemistry are investigated. The synthesis consists of cross-linking and grafting preformed ene-reactive polymer…
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) microgels are renowned for their thermoresponsive behavior, exhibiting a distinct volume phase transition (VPT) upon temperature changes. This study investigates the influence of microgel softness,…
We synthesize thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) colloidal microgel particles of different stiffnesses by controlling the concentration of crosslinker in a one-pot synthesis method. We employ oscillatory rheology and…
This is an integrated experimental and theoretical study of the dynamics and rheology of self-crosslinked, slightly charged, temperature responsive soft Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) microgels over a wide range of concentration and…
Thermoresponsive polymer architectures have become integral building blocks of 'smart' functional materials in modern applications. For a large range of developments, e.g., for drug delivery or nanocatalytic carrier systems, the selective…
A low-temperature dynamical transition has been reported in several proteins. We provide the first observation of a `protein-like' dynamical transition in nonbiological aqueous environments. To this aim we exploit the popular colloidal…
Thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) particles of different sizes are synthesized by varying the concentration of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) in a one-pot method. The sizes, size polydispersities and the…
Microgel particles composed of Interpenetrated Polymer Networks (IPN) of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAAc) dispersed in water have been investigated through dynamic light scattering. The study of the…
By means of atomistic molecular dynamics simulations we investigate the behaviour of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), PNIPAM, in water at temperatures below and above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST), including the undercooled…
Combining elastic incoherent neutron scattering and differential scanning calorimetry, we investigate the occurrence of the volume phase transition (VPT) in very concentrated PNIPAM microgel suspensions, from a polymer weight fraction of…
Thermo-responsive microgel particles can exhibit a drastic volume shrinkage upon increasing the solvent temperature. Recently we found that the spreading of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)(PNiPAm) microgels at a liquid interface under the…
Hypotheses: Additives are commonly used to tune macromolecular conformational transitions. Among additives, trehalose is an excellent bioprotectant and among responsive polymers, PNIPAM is the most studied material. Nevertheless, their…