Yielding behavior of dense microgel glasses

Abstract

We report here the yielding behavior of dense suspensions of stimuli-responsive poly-N-isopropyl acrylamide (PNIPAM) microgel particles studied by performing oscillatory shear measurements. At a volume fraction of = 0.6 (labeled as sample S1) the suspension is characterized to be repulsive glass by dynamic light scattering technique and showed one step yielding. Quite interestingly higher volume fraction sample (S2) prepared by osmotically compressing sample S1, showed yielding occurring in two steps. Such one step yielding behavior turning into two step yielding was reported by Pham et al [Europhys. Lett., 75, 624 (2006)] in hard-sphere repulsive colloidal glass when transformed into an attractive glass by inducing depletion attraction. We confirm the repulsive interparticle interaction between PNIPAM microgel particles turning into attractive upon osmotic compression by static light scattering measurements. © 2013 American Institute of Physics.