Fluids, Gels and Crystals : Phase behavior of binary thermoresponsive microgel mixtures
Particles that are a hundred- to ten thousand times smaller than the width of a hair are commonly referred to as colloidal particles. Colloidal particles occur in a variety of products, like foodstuffs (marmelade and dairy products), construction materials (cement) and stained glass. In water, these particles are strongly affected by the Brownian force: an force that was discovered in 1827 by the Thermoresponsive colloidal microgels expel solvent from their interior upon crossing a threshold temperature, resulting in a significantly reduced size. The collapse of microgels can reversibly switch the interparticle interactions from soft repulsive to attractive, and the accompanying size reduction allows for precise control over volume fraction. Mixing two microgels that collapse at different