{"id":1307,"date":"2019-03-29T12:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T11:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/?p=1307"},"modified":"2020-01-08T14:35:32","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T13:35:32","slug":"exploring-the-colloid-to-polymer-transition-for-ultra-low-crosslinked-microgels-from-three-to-two-dimensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/?p=1307","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the colloid-to-polymer transition for ultra-low crosslinked microgels from three to two dimensions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> In this work we study ultra-low crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)  microgels (ULC), which can behave like colloids or flexible polymers  depending on their environment, e.g. dimensionality, compression or  other external stimuli. Small-angle neutron scattering shows that the  structure of the ULC microgels in bulk aqueous solution is characterized  by a density profile that decays smoothly from the center to a fuzzy  surface. Their phase behavior and rheological properties are those of  colloids interacting with a soft potential. However, when these  microgels are confined at an oil-water interface, their behavior  resembles that of flexible macromolecules. Once monolayers of ultra-low  crosslinked microgels are compressed, deposited on solid substrate and  studied with atomic-force microscopy, a concentration-dependent  topography is observed. Depending on the compression, these microgels  can behave as flexible polymers, covering the substrate with a uniform  film, or as colloidal microgels leading to a monolayer of particles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Scotti_NatComm-scaled.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Scotti_NatComm-1024x768.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1309\" width=\"467\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Scotti_NatComm-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Scotti_NatComm-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Scotti_NatComm-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Scotti_NatComm-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Scotti_NatComm-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 467px) 100vw, 467px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A. Scotti, S. Bochenek, M. Brugnoni, M. A. Fernandez-Rodriguez, M. F.  Schulte, J. E. Houston, A. P. H. Gelissen, I. I. Potemkin, L. Isa, and  W. Richtering<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Nat. Commun.<\/em> <strong>10<\/strong>, 1418 (2019), DOI: <a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/s41467-019-09227-5\">10.1038\/s41467-019-09227-5 <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this work we study ultra-low crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgels (ULC), which can behave like colloids or flexible polymers depending on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Anna Eisele","author_link":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/?author=3"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Scotti_NatComm-300x225.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/?cat=34\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Highlights<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Highlights<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 7 years ago","modified":"Updated 6 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on March 29, 2019","modified":"Updated on January 8, 2020"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on March 29, 2019 12:56","modified":"Updated on January 8, 2020 14:35"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1355,"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions\/1355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microgels.rwth-aachen.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}