Gelation of polymeric nanoparticles--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

We review how, starting from polymeric nanoparticles, to generate clusters of fractal morphology and to expand the entire space and interconnect to form gels, through either Brownian motion or intense shear-induced aggregation. In the case of Brownian motion-induced gelation, specific techniques developed to obtain uniform structure of gels under both reaction-limited and diffusion-limited cluster aggregation conditions have been described. In the case of intense shear-induced gelation as a newly developed technique, our focus is on its principle, theoretical development and advantages with respect to Brownian motion-induced gelation in practical applications. We consider gelation of both rigid and soft particles. As a physical process, the bonding between the particles within gels is owed to van der Waals attractions, thus being easily broken. However, in the case of soft particles that can coalesce upon contact, the coalescence can allow the particles to stick together forming permanent gels. In this case, the gel structure can be controlled by controlling the degree of coalescence. Techniques used to control the degree of coalescence have also been described.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Structured material; Fractal; Gelation; Gel; Polymer

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