IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v13y2022i1d10.1038_s41467-022-31209-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In-situ study of the impact of temperature and architecture on the interfacial structure of microgels

Author

Listed:
  • Steffen Bochenek

    (RWTH Aachen University)

  • Fabrizio Camerin

    (CNR-ISC, Sapienza University of Rome
    Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Emanuela Zaccarelli

    (CNR-ISC, Sapienza University of Rome
    Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Armando Maestro

    (Institut Laue-Langevin ILL DS/LSS
    Centro de Fısica de Materiales (CSIC, UPV/EHU) - Materials Physics Center MPC
    IKERBASQUE-Basque Foundation for Science)

  • Maximilian M. Schmidt

    (RWTH Aachen University)

  • Walter Richtering

    (RWTH Aachen University)

  • Andrea Scotti

    (RWTH Aachen University)

Abstract

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 limited by available experimental techniques, which do not allow a direct investigation at interfaces. To overcome this difficulty, here we employ neutron reflectometry, which allows us to probe the structure and responsiveness of the microgels in-situ at the air-water interface. We investigate two types of microgels with different cross-link density, thus having different softness and deformability, both below and above their volume phase transition temperature, by combining experiments with computer simulations of in silico synthesized microgels. We find that temperature only affects the portion of microgels in water, while the strongest effect of the microgels softness is observed in their ability to protrude into the air. In particular, standard microgels have an apparent contact angle of few degrees, while ultra-low cross-linked microgels form a flat polymeric layer with zero contact angle. Altogether, this study provides an in-depth microscopic description of how different microgel architectures affect their arrangements at interfaces, and will be the foundation for a better understanding of their phase behavior and assembly.

Suggested Citation

  • Steffen Bochenek & Fabrizio Camerin & Emanuela Zaccarelli & Armando Maestro & Maximilian M. Schmidt & Walter Richtering & Andrea Scotti, 2022. "In-situ study of the impact of temperature and architecture on the interfacial structure of microgels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-31209-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31209-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31209-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-022-31209-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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 & W. Richtering, 2019. "Exploring the colloid-to-polymer transition for ultra-low crosslinked microgels from three to two dimensions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Frank Scheffold, 2020. "Pathways and challenges towards a complete characterization of microgels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Fabio Grillo & Miguel Angel Fernandez-Rodriguez & Maria-Nefeli Antonopoulou & Dominic Gerber & Lucio Isa, 2020. "Self-templating assembly of soft microparticles into complex tessellations," Nature, Nature, vol. 582(7811), pages 219-224, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marcel Rey & Jannis Kolker & James A. Richards & Isha Malhotra & Thomas S. Glen & N. Y. Denise Li & Fraser H. J. Laidlaw & Damian Renggli & Jan Vermant & Andrew B. Schofield & Syuji Fujii & Hartmut Lö, 2023. "Interactions between interfaces dictate stimuli-responsive emulsion behaviour," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marcel Rey & Jannis Kolker & James A. Richards & Isha Malhotra & Thomas S. Glen & N. Y. Denise Li & Fraser H. J. Laidlaw & Damian Renggli & Jan Vermant & Andrew B. Schofield & Syuji Fujii & Hartmut Lö, 2023. "Interactions between interfaces dictate stimuli-responsive emulsion behaviour," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Nogueira, T.P.O. & Bordin, José Rafael, 2022. "Patterns in 2D core-softened systems: From sphere to dumbbell colloids," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 605(C).
    3. Gnan, Nicoletta, 2023. "Lecture notes of the 15th international summer school on Fundamental Problems in Statistical Physics: Colloidal dispersions," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 631(C).
    4. Gan Wang & Piotr Nowakowski & Nima Farahmand Bafi & Benjamin Midtvedt & Falko Schmidt & Agnese Callegari & Ruggero Verre & Mikael Käll & S. Dietrich & Svyatoslav Kondrat & Giovanni Volpe, 2024. "Nanoalignment by critical Casimir torques," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-31209-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.