Photo-Crosslinkable Colloids: From Fluid Structure and Dynamics of Spheres to Suspensions of Ellipsoids

Avner P Cohen, Maria Alesker, Andrew B Schofield, David Zitoun, Eli Sloutskin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Recently-developed photo-crosslinkable PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate) colloidal spheres are a highly promising system for fundamental studies in colloidal physics and may have a wide range of future technological applications. We synthesize these colloids and characterize their size distribution. Their swelling in a density- and index- matching organic solvent system is demonstrated and we employ dynamic light scattering (DLS), as also the recently-developed confocal differential dynamic microscopy (ConDDM), to characterize the structure and the dynamics of a fluid bulk suspension of such colloids at different particle densities, detecting significant particle charging effects. We stretch these photo-crosslinkable spheres into ellipsoids. The fact that the ellipsoids are cross-linked allows them to be fluorescently stained, permitting a dense suspension of ellipsoids, a simple model of fluid matter, to be imaged by direct confocal microscopy.
Original languageEnglish
Article number29
Number of pages17
JournalGels
Volume2
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Nov 2016

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