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    Anisotropic Microgels Show Their Soft Side

    Year: 2022

    Journal: Langmuir, Volume 38, May-03, page 5063–5080

    Authors: Nickel, Anne C.; Kratzenberg, Timon; Bochenek, Steffen; Schmidt, Maximilian M.; Rudov, Andrey A.; Falkenstein, Andreas; Potemkin, Igor I.; Crassous, Jerome J.; Richtering, Walter

    Organizations: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [SFB 985]; Russian Foundation for Basic Research [19-03-00472, 20-33-70242]

    Anisotropic, submicrometer-sized particles are versatile systems providing interesting features in creating orderingin two-dimensional systems. Combining hard ellipsoids with a softshell further enhances the opportunities to trigger and controlorder and alignment. In this work, we report rich 2D phasebehavior and show how softness affects the ordering of anisotropicparticles atfluid oil-water interfaces. Three different core-shellsystems were synthesized such that they have the same ellipticalhematite-silica core but differ with respect to thickness and stiffness of the soft microgel shell. Compression isotherms, the shape ofindividual core-shell microgels, and their 2D order at a decane-water interface are investigated by means of the Langmuir-Blodgett technique combined with ex-situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging as well as dissipative particle dynamics (DPD)simulations. We show how the softness, size, and anisotropy of the microgel shell affect the side-to-side vs tip-to-tip ordering ofanisotropic hybrid microgels as well as the alignment with respect to the direction of compression in the Langmuir trough. A large,soft microgel shell leads to an ordered structure with tip-to-tip alignment directed perpendicular to the direction of compression. Incontrast, a thin and harder microgel shell leads to side-to-side ordering orientated parallel to the compression direction. In addition,the thin and harder microgel shell induces clustering of the microgels in the dilute state, indicating the presence of strong capillaryinteractions. Ourfindings highlight the relevance of softness for the complex ordering of anisotropic hybrid microgels at interfaces
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