Star and Amphiphilic Responsive Anisotropic Colloids: Design and Self-Assembly

• Applicant: Professor Jérôme Crassous, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Preparatory and Physical Chemistry of Polymers
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 490663365

Hybrid colloids with tunable star architectures will be designed from bioengineered filamentous fd viruses acting as arms specifically associated with thermo-responsive microgels as a mesoscale analog of star block copolymers. The formation of these new colloidal polymers relies on the complementary expertise of Aachen on functional microgels and their use as model soft colloids and Bordeaux on rod-like viruses and their tip functionalization. Benefiting from the large persistence length of the rod-shaped virus, such colloidal copolymers are expected to offer a novel extremely long-range soft potential and a rich phase diagram that will be investigated both in the direct and reciprocal space combining microscopy and scattering techniques. These colloidal polymer stars with tunable spatial distribution of the viral arms will allow for dynamics study at the single particle scale. Finally, by reducing the valency to one virus linked to one microgel or by specifically functionalizing the microgels, amphiphilic hybrids will be produced with the ultimate goal to create colloidal analogs mimicking molecular systems and being observable at the single particle level of block copolymers and surfactants. According to their effective packing parameters, these amphiphilic colloids will self-organize into defined hierarchical assemblies, as spherical, worm-like or vesicular superstructures, opening the way of a better understanding of their self-assembly processes and phase transitions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Thomas Beneyton; Dr. Eric Grelet
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Walter Richtering