Fast and slow dynamics in PNIPAM microgels.
Microgels are colloidal-scale particles individually made by cross-linked polymer networks, which can swell and deswell on short time-scales as compared to "macrogels". The widely studied PNIPAM microgels are nowadays used as a model system for the glass transition. Their dual colloid/polymer nature makes PNIPAM microgels very interesting because one can actually think of two well-separated glass transitions: one at the level of the colloidal particles and one at the level of the individual polymer chains. A recent study has put forward the hypothesis that in glass-formers a clear correlation exists between the fast atomic mean-squared displacements within the cage of close neighbors and the slow structural relaxation. However an experimental confirmation of this correlation in a colloidal system is still missing. Here we propose to investigate PNIPAM microgels across both the colloidal and the polymeric glass transition. Such an investigation will provide a test of the hypothesized dynamical correlation between fast and slow dynamics. In addition, it will pioneer the new concept of a double-glass-transition system.
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ZACCARELLI Emanuela; BERTOLDO Monica; NATALI Francesca; OLLIVIER Jacques; ORECCHINI Andrea; Alessandro Paciaroni and M. Zanatta. (2015). Fast and slow dynamics in PNIPAM microgels.. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.9-11-1736
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