Journal Article

PreJuSER-21670

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Probing structure in colloidal gels of thermoreversible rodlike virus particles: Rheology and scattering

Reddy, N. K. ; Zhang, Z. ; Lettinga, M. P.FZJ* ; Dhont, J. K. G.FZJ* ; Vermant, J.

2012
Inst. Melville, NY [u.a.]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/4630  doi:10.1122/1.4728335

Abstract: Aggregated suspensions of rodlike particles are commonly encountered in soft biological materials and their solidlike response at extremely low volume fractions is also exploited technologically. Understanding the link between the physicochemical parameters such as size, aspect ratio, volume fraction, and interparticle forces with the resulting microstructure and the subsequent rheological response remains challenging. In the present work, suspensions of monodisperse rodlike virus particles, whose surface is modified by grafting with a thermoreversible polymer poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), are used as a model system. The repulsive and attractive contributions to the total interaction potential can be changed independently by varying the ionic strength and the temperature. The effects of these changes on the strength and structure of gels have been studied near the gel transition using a combination of rheological and scattering measurements. Rheological measurements of the near critical gel properties as a function of concentration and ionic strength proved to be more sensitive compared to scattering in resolving the structural differences. A percolating structure can be formed at very low volume fractions, which show a weak dependence on the ionic strength with the anisotropy of the repulsive interactions playing the main role in creating more "open" structures. The intrinsic stiffness of the rodlike particles does not affect the moduli of the gel states very strongly. (C) 2012 The Society of Rheology. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1122/1.4728335]

Keyword(s): J

Note: The authors thank Jan Mewis for stimulating discussions. We thank the EU for funding through the project NANODIRECT (Grant No. CP-FP 213948-2). The authors are grateful to European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) for providing the beamtime (experiment SC-2201) and Theyencheri Narayanan and Michael Sztucki of ID02 for their assistance with the SAXS experiments.

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Weiche Materie (ICS-3)

Research Program(s):

1. BioSoft: Makromolekulare Systeme und biologische Informationsverarbeitung (P45)
2. NANODIRECT - Toolbox for Directed and Controlled Self-Assembly of nano-Colloids (213948) (213948)

Appears in the scientific report 2012

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Database coverage:
; ; Current Contents - Social and Behavioral Sciences ; JCR ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Thomson Reuters Master Journal List ; Web of Science Core Collection

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