Related papers: Thermoresponsive copolymer microgels synthesized v…
Plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) integrated within thermoresponsive polymeric microgels provide a versatile platform for the realization of stimuli-responsive optical materials, where the microgel volume phase transition enables dynamic…
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,…
Thermoresponsive microgels are polymeric colloidal networks that can change their size in response to a temperature variation. This peculiar feature is driven by the nature of the solvent-polymer interactions, which triggers the so-called…
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…
We study swelling and structural properties of ionic microgel suspensions within a comprehensive coarse-grained model that combines the polymeric and colloidal natures of microgels as permeable, compressible, charged spheres governed by…
A polymer shell offers a unique opportunity to tailor structural and optical properties of optically functional nanoparticles and their ensembles. Here, we develop a process to coat Mie-resonant silicon nanospheres (Si NSs) with a…
Nanostructured polymer-metal oxide composites are a current research area of great importance due to its highlight applications in sensors, optics, catalysts and drug delivery. Particularly the use of thermoresponsive polymers gives more…
We investigate the temperature dependent phase behaviour of mixtures of poly(Nisopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) microgel colloids and a triblock copolymer (PEO-PPO-PEO) surfactant, which undergoes micellisation. Gelation in these systems…
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…
Stimuli-responsive lyogels are considered to be smart materials due to their capability of undergoing significant macroscopic changes in response to external triggers. Due to their versatile and unique properties, smart lyogels exhibit…
We provide experimental and numerical evidence of a new class of soft nanocolloids: star-like microgels with thermoresponsive character. This is achieved by using the standard precipitation polymerization synthesis of…
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…
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…
The long debated protein dynamical transition was recently found also in non-biological macromolecules, such as poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) microgels. Here, by using atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, we report a description…
Hierarchical polymer structures such as pNIPAM microgels have been extensively studied for their ability to undergo significant structural and physical transformations that can be controlled by external stimuli such as temperature, pH or…
Recent progress has been made in the numerical modelling of neutral microgel particles with a realistic, disordered structure. In this work we extend this approach to the case of co-polymerised microgels where a thermoresponsive polymer is…
We investigated the complexation of thermoresponsive anionic poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNiPAM) microgels and cationic $\epsilon$-polylysine ($\epsilon$-PLL) chains. By combining electrophoresis, light scattering, transmission electron…
The influence of shape fluctuations on deformable thermosensitive microgels in aqueous solution is investigated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and depolarized dynamic light scattering (DDLS). The systems under study consist of a solid…
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…
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…