Related papers: Relaxation dynamics, Softness and Fragility of Mic…
Microgel suspensions of Interpenetrated Polymer Network (IPN) of PNIPAM and PAAc in D$_2$O, have been investigated through dynamic light scattering as a function of temperature, pH and concentration across the Volume Phase Transition (VPT).…
Hypothesis: The peculiar swelling behaviour of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-based responsive microgels provides the possibility to tune both softness and volume fraction with temperature, making these systems of great interest for…
Responsive microgels based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) exhibit peculiar behaviours due to the competition between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions of the constituent networks. The interpenetration of poly-acrilic…
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…
Soft particles display highly versatile properties with respect to hard colloids, even more so at fluid-fluid interfaces. In particular, microgels, consisting of a cross-linked polymer network, are able to deform and flatten upon adsorption…
Hydrogel consists of a crosslinked polymer matrix imbibed with a solvent such as water at volume fractions that can exceed 90\%. They are important in many scientific and engineering applications due to their tunable physiochemical…
We combine small angle scattering experiments and simulations to investigate the internal structure and interactions of composite Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-Poly(ethylene glycol) (PNIPAM-PEG) microgels. At low temperatures the…
Polymer microgels exhibit intriguing macroscopic flow properties arising from their unique microscopic structure. Microgel colloids usually comprise a crosslinked polymer network with a radially decaying density profile, resulting in a…
Microgels are soft colloidal particles constituted by cross-linked polymer networks with a high potential for applications. In particular, after adsorption at a fluid interface, interfacial tension provides two-dimensional (2D) confinement…
Ferrogels are smart soft materials, consisting of a polymeric network and embedded magnetic particles. Novel phenomena, such as the variation of the overall mechanical properties by external magnetic fields, emerge consequently. However,…
Hydrogel-based soft actuators can operate in sensitive environments, bridging the gap of rigid machines interacting with soft matter. However, while stimuli-responsive hydrogels can undergo extreme reversible volume changes of up to ~90%,…
Soft colloids are increasingly used as model systems to address fundamental issues such as crystallisation and the glass and jamming transitions. Among the available classes of soft colloids, microgels are emerging as the gold standard.…
Thermosensitive microgels are widely studied hybrid systems combining properties of polymers and colloidal particles in a unique way. Due to their complex morphology their interactions and packing, and consequentially the viscoelastcity of…
Microgels are soft colloids that, in virtue of their polymeric nature, can react to external stimuli such as temperature or pH by changing their size. The resulting swelling/deswelling transition can be exploited in fundamental research as…
Microgels are complex macromolecules. These colloid-sized polymer networks possess internal degrees of freedom and, depending on the polymer(s) they are made of, can acquire a responsiveness to variations of the environment (temperature,…
The phase behaviour of soft colloids has attracted great attention due to the large variety of new phenomenologies emerging from their ability to pack at very high volume fractions. Here we report rheological measurements on interpenetrated…
We study the structure and dynamics of a transient network composed of droplets of microemulsion connected by telechelic polymers. The polymer induces a bridging attraction between droplets without changing their shape. A viscoelastic…
We report temperature-responsive soft composites of semiflexible biopolymer networks (fibrin) containing dispersed microgel colloidal particles of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) that undergo a thermodynamically driven de-swelling…
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…
Soft particles such as microgels and core-shell particles can undergo significant and anisotropic deformations when adsorbed to a liquid interface. This, in turn, leads to a complex phase behavior upon compression. Here we develop a…