Microgels structural types

FIGURE 16.1 Principal structural types of micro- and nanogels (a) Cross-linked networks, (b) networks associated with hydrophobic domains (e.g., cholesterol molecules), (c) core-shell structure of two different networks, (d) multilayer networks (microgel covered with two polyelectrolyte layers is shown), (e) composite solid core-soft shell networks containing metal, ceramic, or protein NPs, (f) composite raisin-in-pie type of microgel with metal NPs dispersed in the network. 

A different type of microgels can be obtained by solution polymerization. Since an increase of dilution during crosslinking increases the probability of intramolecular crosslinking, the growing polymer chains in a highly dilute solution become intramolecularly crosslinked and their structure approaches that of the microgels formed within the micelles. 

The addition of OMM increases the steepness of the curve owing to the higher viscosity of exfoliated microgel type network structure [13] at low shear rates and its orientation that enhances the decrease of viscosity with increasing shear rate. 

A major basis for the advancement in macro-molecular functionality is our improving ability to control the macromolecular and supramolecular structures in great detail. Dense and cascade-type branching provided access to three-dimensional molecules, which do not interpenetrate but interact via their surfaces. Recent synthetic developments include microgels,15 17 dendrimers,18-26 and arborescent graft... 

Nuclear magnetic resonance and [47], fluorescence probe analysis [48], polarization fluorescence [49] and luminescence [50] techniques confirm the inhomogeneous microgel-like structure of the gel-type polystyrene networks. EUiott and Bowman [51] suggested an analytical solution and numerical integration approaches to theoretically evaluate... 

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