TY - JOUR
T1 - Colloidal gelation induced by ring polymers
AU - Moghimi, Esmaeel
AU - Chubak, Iurii
AU - Kaliva, Maria
AU - Kiany, Parvin
AU - Chang, Taihyun
AU - Ahn, Junyoung
AU - Patelis, Nikolaos
AU - Sakellariou, Georgios
AU - Egorov, Sergei A.
AU - Vlassopoulos, Dimitris
AU - Likos, Christos N.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
PY - 2024/1
Y1 - 2024/1
N2 - We provide unambiguous experimental evidence that ring polymers are stronger depleting agents in colloidal suspensions than their linear counterparts. We use an intermediate volume fraction (φc=0.44) colloidal gel based on the classic poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) hard spheres, in which the polystyrene depletant is either linear or ring of the same molar mass or the same size. We systematically increase the depletant concentration from zero (no attraction) to well above the gelation point and find that in the presence of rings, gels are formed at smaller concentrations and possess a larger storage modulus in comparison to those induced by the linear chains. Consequently, the yield stress is enhanced; however, the yield strain (gel deformability) remains concomitantly unaffected. Our experimental findings are in agreement with theoretical calculations based on effective interaction potentials. Hence, polymer architecture is a powerful entropic tool to tailor the strength of colloidal gels.
AB - We provide unambiguous experimental evidence that ring polymers are stronger depleting agents in colloidal suspensions than their linear counterparts. We use an intermediate volume fraction (φc=0.44) colloidal gel based on the classic poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) hard spheres, in which the polystyrene depletant is either linear or ring of the same molar mass or the same size. We systematically increase the depletant concentration from zero (no attraction) to well above the gelation point and find that in the presence of rings, gels are formed at smaller concentrations and possess a larger storage modulus in comparison to those induced by the linear chains. Consequently, the yield stress is enhanced; however, the yield strain (gel deformability) remains concomitantly unaffected. Our experimental findings are in agreement with theoretical calculations based on effective interaction potentials. Hence, polymer architecture is a powerful entropic tool to tailor the strength of colloidal gels.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85182986275&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.013079
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.013079
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85182986275
VL - 6
JO - Physical Review Research
JF - Physical Review Research
SN - 2643-1564
IS - 1
M1 - 013079
ER -