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PNAS: Two-step deswelling in the Volume Phase Transition of thermoresponsive microgels

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ISC researchers  working on soft matter coauthored a interesting work on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS)
Two-step deswelling in the Volume Phase Transition of thermoresponsive microgels
PNAS September 14, 2021 118 (37) e2109560118

Soft particles often combine colloidal and polymeric aspects, making them very valuable for both fundamental and applied science. Microgels, which are colloidal-scale polymer networks, are one of the most important examples in class of systems.… Read the rest

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Microgels at Interfaces Behave as 2D Elastic Particles Featuring Reentrant Dynamics – PRX

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Fabrizio Camerin, Nicoletta Gnan, José Ruiz-Franco, Andrea Ninarello, Lorenzo Rovigatti, and Emanuela Zaccarelli have published Microgels at Interfaces Behave as 2D Elastic Particles Featuring Reentrant Dynamics


The properties and the structure of colloids—in which particles of one substance are dispersed in another—are determined by the way those particles interact with each other. An easy guess might lead one to say that complex particles possess an equally complex interaction potential.… Read the rest

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The microscopic role of deformation in the dynamics of soft colloids published in Nature

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Nicoletta Gnan and Emanuela Zaccarelli have published The microscopic role of deformation in the dynamics of soft colloids in Nature Physics.

Soft colloids enable the exploration of states with densities exceeding that of random close packing, but it remains unclear whether softness controls the dynamics under these dense conditions. Experimental studies have reported conflicting results, and numerical studies have so far focused primarily on simple models that allow particles to overlap, but neglect particle deformations.… Read the rest

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A new look at effective interactions between microgel particles – Nature Communications

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Maxime J. Bergman, Nicoletta Gnan, Marc Obiols-Rabasa, Janne-Mieke Meijer, Lorenzo Rovigatti, Emanuela Zaccarelli & Peter Schurtenberger
Nature Communications volume 9, Article number: 5039 (2018)

Thermoresponsive microgels find widespread use as colloidal model systems, because their temperature-dependent size allows facile tuning of their volume fraction in situ.
However, an interaction potential unifying their behavior across the entire phase diagram is sorely lacking.… Read the rest

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Protein-like dynamical transition in concentrated microgels

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Letizia Tavagnacco, Emanuela Zaccarelli and others published Evidence of a low-temperature dynamical transition in concentrated microgels in Science Advances.

A low-temperature dynamical transition has been reported in several proteins. We provide the first observation of a “protein-like” dynamical transition in nonbiological aqueous environments. To this aim, we exploit the popular colloidal system of poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM) microgels, extending their investigation to unprecedentedly high concentrations.… Read the rest

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GELARTE

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Microgel e arte: una nuova tecnologia per la conservazione dei beni cartacei

Founding Body: Lazioinnova – Regione Lazio
Total grant: € 150k
Principal Investigator: Emanuela Zaccarelli
Other participants: CNR ISC: Mauro Missori, Barbara Ruzicka, Roberta Angelini, Nicoletta Gnan
Univ. Tor Vergata: Ester Chiessi, Claudia Mazzuca, Laura Micheli, Olivia Pulci
esterni: Laura Iannuccelli, Silvia Sotgiu, Lorenzo Teodonio (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario – ICRCPAL)
Project duration:
Website:

Progetto di Ricerca, finanziato ai sensi della L.R.… Read the rest

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Emanuela Zaccarelli awarded a MIUR FARE grant

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Emanuela Zaccarelli awarded a MIUR FARE grant with the project SOFTART: Enhancing microgels potentialities: ultrasoftness and cultural heritage applications.

The project builds on the ERC Consolidator project MIMIC and combines theoretical/numerical expertise of the MIMIC team led by Emanuela Zaccarelli with experimental work at CNR ISC carried out by the groups of Barbara Ruzicka, Roberta Angelini, Simona Sennato and Mauro Missori.… Read the rest

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SOFTART

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Enhancing microgels potentialities: ultrasoftness and cultural heritage applications

Founding Body: MIUR
Total grant: € 145k
Principal Investigator: Emanuela Zaccarelli
Other participants:
Project duration: 2018-2021
Website:
… Read the rest
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Emanuela Zaccarelli has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant

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Congratulations to Emanuela Zaccarelli for having been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant.
Modeling microgels: from microscopic design to macroscopic description (MIMIC)
Soft matter provides the ideal playground for exploring physical phenomena that have no counterpart in atomic and molecular systems. A continuous progress in particle synthesis has provided a rich variety of soft, polymeric colloids, which are highly interpenetrable and thus can reach ultra-dense, jammed states.… Read the rest

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MIMIC

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Modeling microgels: from microscopic design to macroscopic description

Founding Body: European Research Council – ERC Consolidator Grant
Total grant: € 1300k
Principal Investigator: Emanuela Zaccarelli
Other participants:
Project duration: 2016-2021
Website:
… Read the rest
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SMART

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New “smart” gels in soft matter

Founding Body: MIUR PRIN Progetti di ricerca di interesse nazionale
Total grant: € 83k
Principal Investigator: Emanuela Zaccarelli
Other participants:
Project duration: 2014-2017
Website:
… Read the rest
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ANISOFT

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Anisotropies and non equilibrium in soft matter: routes to the self assembly of advanced material

Founding Body: MIUR FIRB
Total grant: € 670k
Principal Investigator: Emanuela Zaccarelli
Other participants:
Project duration: 2013-2017
Website:
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Empty Liquids and Equilibrium Gels in a Colloidal Clay

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CNR researchers (CNR-ISC and CNR-IPCF) in collaboration with University La Sapienza and ESRF (Grenoble) have observed a new kind of extremely light and stable gel in a suspension of colloidal clay. The so-called equilibrium gel, predicted 4 years ago by theoretical calculations by members of the same research team for a simplified model[1], could lead to improved drug-delivery systems and other novel microscopic devices.… Read the rest

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Soft matter

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The term “soft matter” refers to a very large class of materials, whose common characteristic is that they are composed of mesoscopic particles, i.e. particles with typical sizes ranging from 1 nm to a few microns. These particles are normally dispersed in a solvent, whose molecules are much smaller in size (typically of atomic dimensions). In addition, the solution may contain other small objects, such as polymeric chains, salt ions, etc.… Read the rest

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