%0 Journal Article
%A Kobayashi, Hideki
%A Winkler, Roland G.
%T Structure of Microgels with Debye-Hückel Interactions
%J Polymers
%V 6
%N 5
%@ 2073-4360
%C Basel
%I MDPI
%M FZJ-2014-03447
%P 1602-1617
%D 2014
%X The structural properties of model microgel particles are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations applying a coarse-grained model. A microgel is comprised of a regular network of polymers internally connected by tetra-functional cross-links and with dangling ends at its surface. The self-avoiding polymers are modeled as bead-spring linear chains. Electrostatic interactions are taken into account by the Debye–Hückel potential. The microgels exhibit a quite uniform density under bad solvent conditions with a rather sharp surface. With increasing Debye length, structural inhomogeneities appear, their surface becomes fuzzy and, at very large Debye lengths, well defined again. Similarly, the polymer conformations change from a self-avoiding walk to a rod-like behavior. Thereby, the average polymer radius of gyration follows a scaling curve in terms of polymer length and persistence length, with an asymptotic rod-like behavior for swollen microgels and self-avoiding walk behavior for weakly swollen gel particles.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000337946500015
%R 10.3390/polym6051602
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/154033