TY  - JOUR
AU  - Riest, Jonas
AU  - Athanasopoulou, Labrini
AU  - Egorov, Sergei A.
AU  - Likos, Christos N.
AU  - Ziherl, Primož
TI  - Elasticity of polymeric nanocolloidal particles
JO  - Scientific reports
VL  - 5
SN  - 2045-2322
CY  - London
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
M1  - FZJ-2015-06850
SP  - 15854 -
PY  - 2015
AB  - Softness is an essential mechanical feature of macromolecular particles such as polymer-grafted nanocolloids, polyelectrolyte networks, cross-linked microgels as well as block copolymer and dendrimer micelles. Elasticity of individual particles directly controls their swelling, wetting, and adsorption behaviour, their aggregation and self-assembly as well as structural and rheological properties of suspensions. Here we use numerical simulations and self-consistent field theory to study the deformation behaviour of a single spherical polymer brush upon diametral compression. We observe a universal response, which is rationalised using scaling arguments and interpreted in terms of two coarse-grained models. At small and intermediate compressions the deformation can be accurately reproduced by modelling the brush as a liquid drop, whereas at large compressions the brush behaves as a soft ball. Applicable far beyond the pairwise-additive small-strain regime, the models may be used to describe microelasticity of nanocolloids in severe confinement including dense disordered and crystalline phases.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000363904200001
C6  - pmid:26522242
DO  - DOI:10.1038/srep15854
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/276402
ER  -