Work

Nanogels with tailored hydrophobicity and their behavior at air/water interfaces

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: -(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide) (PHPMA) nanogels as a hydrophilic benchmark and introduce gradually varied amounts of hydrophobic propyl or dodecyl moieties to increase the nanogel hydrophobicity. We study the deformation and arrangement of these particles at an air/water interface and correlate the results with quantitative measures for nanogel hydrophobicity. We observe that increasing hydrophobicity of nanogels, either by increasing the hydrophobic moiety ratio or the alkyl chain length, leads to decreased particle deformability and aggregation of an interfacially-adsorbed monolayer. Contrary to what may be intuitively assumed, these changes are not gradual, but rather occur suddenly above a threshold in hydrophobicity. Our study further shows that the effect of hydrophobicity affects the nanogel properties differently in bulk and when adsorbed at liquid interfaces. Thus, this study establishes the transition of interfacial behavior between soft gel-like particles to a solid spherical morphology triggered by the increase in hydrophobicity.

Source: Soft Matter

DOI: 10.1039/d4sm01186d

Authors: Ruiguang Cui, Maret Ickler, Johannes Menath, Nicolas Vogel, Daniel Klinger

Institutions: Freie Universität Berlin, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

Language: English

Topic: Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization

Subfield: Materials Chemistry

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, China Scholarship Council

Awards: G345496891, G5913689987, G6707187164