Graft polymer solutions as sticky hard-sphere colloids

Interpenetrating Polymer Network Microgels in Water: Effect of Composition on the Structural Properties and Electrosteric Interactions

Microgels of cross-linked interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) are very versatile systems combining the properties of colloids and polymers. Herein we study IPN microgels composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and poly(acrylic acid) to understand how weight composition and reactant concentrations affect their structural, conformational and electrosteric properties in water. The results show that it is possible to drive the formation of microgels with the desired properties by adjusting IPN composition and preparation method during the synthesis. During synthesis, the polymerization of acrylic acid triggers the merging among IPNs via covalent linking, giving rise to microgels with larger mass and size, the effect being larger for higher concentration of the reactants. In addition, a close relation between the microgel internal conformation and the colloidal stability is observed, due to the presence of screened groups inside the microgel.

Role of the coulombic interaction in ligand-induced biopolymer aggregation

The interaction mechanisms responsible for the binding between metal complexes and biopolymers in aqueous solution, as well as the consequent aggregation process of biopolymers themselves, involve many factors, from geometrical aspects and hydrophobic contributions, as examples, to the electrostatic potential. In this paper aqueous solutions of a polynucleotide, polyadenylic acid (PolyA), which mimics the helix arrangement of RNA or single-stranded DNA but has a simpler structure, are used as a model system. The role of the electrostatic interactions in the binding process between some platinum(II) complexes and PolyA and in the aggregation among PolyA molecules is investigated, by means of elastic and quasielastic light scattering and electrophoretic mobility. The results show that the presence of large, planar aromatic moiety in the dicationic platinum(II) complexes is essential for the binding with PolyA and suggest that the consequent lowering of the local electrostatic barrier between PolyA molecules can be involved in triggering the aggregation process.

(2n,n) potential and sticky-sphere fluids

The authors investigate the behavior of a model fluid for which the interaction energy between molecules at a separation r is of the form 4epsilon[(sigma/r)2n-(sigma/r)n], where epsilon and sigma are constants and n is a large integer. The particular properties they study are the pressure p, the mean square force F2, the elastic shear modulus at infinite frequency Ginfinity, the bulk modulus at infinite frequency Kinfinity, and the potential energy per molecule u. They show that if n is sufficiently large it is possible to derive the properties of the system in terms of two parameters, the values of the cavity function and of its derivative at the position r=sigma. As an example they examine in detail the cases with n=144 and n=72 for three different temperatures and they test the theory by comparison with a computer simulation of the system. They use the simulated pressure and the average mean square force to determine the two parameters and use these values to evaluate other properties; it is found that the theory produces results which agree with computer simulation to within approximately 3%. It is also shown that the model, when the parameter n is large, is equivalent to Baxter's sticky-sphere model with the strength of the adhesion determined by the value of n and the temperature. They use Baxter's solution of the Percus-Yevick equations for the sticky-sphere model to determine the cavity function and from that the values of the same properties. In this second approach there are no free parameters to determine from simulation; all properties are completely determined by the theory. The results obtained agree with computer simulation only to within approximately 6%. This suggests that for this model one needs a better approximation to the cavity function than that provided by the Percus-Yevick solution. Nevertheless, the model looks promising for the study of (typically small) colloidal liquids where the range of attraction is short but finite when compared to its diameter, in contrast to Baxter's sticky-sphere limit where the attractive interaction range is taken to be infinitely narrow. The continuous function approach developed here enables important physical properties such as the infinite shear modulus to be computed, which are finite in experimental systems but are undefined in the sticky-sphere model.

Large structures in diblock copolymer micellar solution

The association properties in water solution of poly(dimethylsiloxane)-b-poly(ethyleneoxide) diblock copolymer was investigated by static and dynamic light scattering in a wide range of concentrations and temperatures. The presence of a long hydrophilic poly(ethyleneoxide) (PEO) chain causes a weak tendency to microphase separation of the system which is responsible for some relevant effects. First of all we observe a late micellization process which is characterized by an unusually high value of the critical micellar concentration (c(cmc) =0.007 g/cm3) and by an unusually small aggregation number (approximately 6) of the generated micelles. Moreover, the composition of the highly hydrated micelles has been found to change sensitively with temperature. On increasing temperature dehydration of micelles has been observed together with a contemporaneous increase in the aggregation number, whereas the hydrodynamic radius remains constant in the whole range investigated. The long hydrophilic chains also stimulate an efficient entanglement process between micelles. The interpenetrating PEO chains belonging to different micelles causes the depletion of the solvent in the outer layer of micelles. The result is the formation, just after the micellization process takes place, of thermodynamically stable clusters of entangled micelles. These large structures, which are present in the system in small concentrations, maintain their structural properties unchanged in a wide range of concentrations and temperatures, and provide indirect evidence of a weak attractive component to the intermicellar interaction potential.