Related papers: Charge affinity and solvent effects in numerical s…
Because micro-ions accumulate around highly charged colloidal particles in electrolyte solutions, the relevant parameter to compute their interactions is not the bare charge, but an effective (or renormalized) quantity, whose value is…
The inner structure of polymeric particles critically influences their phase behavior and functionality, governing their mechanical properties and their physical and chemical interactions. For thermoresponsive microgels, i.e. colloidal…
We study the electrophoretic flow of suspensions of charged colloids with a mesoscopic method that allows to model generic experimental conditions. We show that for highly charged colloids their electrophoretic mobility increases…
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…
Applying electric fields is an attractive way to control and manipulate single particles or molecules, e.g., in lab-on-a-chip devices. However, the response of nanosize objects in electrolyte solution to external fields is far from trivial.…
Interparticle interactions in charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions, of arbitrary salt concentration, are described at the level of effective interactions in an equivalent one-component system. Integrating out from the partition function…
We discuss a class of models for particulate gels in which the particle contacts are described by an effective interaction combining a two-body attraction and a three-body angular repulsion. Using molecular dynamics, we show how varying the…
The effective interaction between charged colloidal particles confined between two planar like-charged walls is investigated using computer simulations of the primitive model describing asymmetric electrolytes. In detail, we calculate the…
Computer simulations are used to investigate the response of a charged colloid and its surrounding microion cloud to an external electric field. Both static fields (DC) and alternating fields (AC) are considered. A mesoscopic simulation…
The utility of non functionalized poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) microgels in physiological and environmental applications is strictly dependent on their reversible thermoresponsiveness and stability in saline media. Despite their…
Surface properties of mixtures of charged platelike colloids and salt in contact with a charged planar wall are studied within density functional theory. The particles are modeled by hard cuboids with their edges constrained to be parallel…
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-based microgels are soft colloids undergoing a Volume Phase Transition (VPT) close to ambient temperature. Although widely employed for fundamental research and application purposes, the modifications of the…
Polymer electrolytes typically exhibit diminished ionic conductivity due to the presence of correlation effects between the cations and anions. Microscopically, transient ionic aggregates, e.g. {\it ion-pairs}, {\it ion-triplets} or higher…
This paper examines the response of electrolyte-saturated polymer gels, embedded with charged spherical inclusions, to a weak gradient of electrolyte concentration. These composites present a model system to study microscale electrokinetic…
Using a simplified microstructural picture we show that interactions between thermosenstive microgel particles can be described by a polymer brush like corona decorating the dense core. The softness of the potential is set by the relative…
The structural characterization of microgels at interfaces is fundamental to understand both their 2D phase behavior and their role as stabilizers that enable emulsions to be broken on demand. However, this characterization is usually…
A numerical method is presented for first-principle simulations of charged colloidal dispersions in electrolyte solutions. Utilizing a smoothed profile for colloid-solvent boundaries, efficient mesoscopic simulations are enabled for…
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…
Superresolution microscopy has become a powerful tool to investigate the internal structure of complex colloidal and polymeric systems, such as microgels, at the nanometer scale. The ability to monitor microgels response to temperature…
The confinement of an ionic liquid between charged solid surfaces is treated using an exactly solvable 1D Coulomb gas model. The theory highlights the importance of two dimensionless parameters: the fugacity of the ionic liquid, and the…