Issue 33, 2015

Dynamic phase diagram of soft nanocolloids

Abstract

We present a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study covering micro-, meso- and macroscopic length and time scales, which enables us to establish a generalized view in terms of structure–property relationship and equilibrium dynamics of soft colloids. We introduce a new, tunable block copolymer model system, which allows us to vary the aggregation number, and consequently its softness, by changing the solvophobic-to-solvophilic block ratio (m : n) over two orders of magnitude. Based on a simple and general coarse-grained model of the colloidal interaction potential, we verify the significance of interaction length σint governing both structural and dynamic properties. We put forward a quantitative comparison between theory and experiment without adjustable parameters, covering a broad range of experimental polymer volume fractions (0.001 ≤ ϕ ≤ 0.5) and regimes from ultra-soft star-like to hard sphere-like particles, that finally results in the dynamic phase diagram of soft colloids. In particular, we find throughout the concentration domain a strong correlation between mesoscopic diffusion and macroscopic viscosity, irrespective of softness, manifested in data collapse on master curves using the interaction length σint as the only relevant parameter. A clear reentrance in the glass transition at high aggregation numbers is found, recovering the predicted hard-sphere (HS) value in the hard-sphere like limit. Finally, the excellent agreement between our new experimental systems with different but already established model systems shows the relevance of block copolymer micelles as a versatile realization of soft colloids and the general validity of a coarse-grained approach for the description of the structure and dynamics of soft colloids.

Graphical abstract: Dynamic phase diagram of soft nanocolloids

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Jun 2015
Accepted
16 Jul 2015
First published
20 Jul 2015

Nanoscale, 2015,7, 13924-13934

Author version available

Dynamic phase diagram of soft nanocolloids

S. Gupta, M. Camargo, J. Stellbrink, J. Allgaier, A. Radulescu, P. Lindner, E. Zaccarelli, C. N. Likos and D. Richter, Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 13924 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR03702F

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