Model and Robust Green soft Colloids: Tunable materials for advancing polymer science and new applications – MrGreco

In the rich landscape of soft colloids, fundamental understanding required to synthetize well defined “model” systems that are homogenous at different scales. For microgel, a free-defect structure reaches a homogenous crosslink density, without “loop” and free dandling chain, and a narrow distribution in size. In industrial application, costs, performance and straightforward production lead to complex soft colloid systems with heterogeneous size and microstructure. Their different architectures offer many possibilities to tailor flow properties and performance of the complex fluid. This balance between heterogeneity and homogeneity is also observed in other scientific field. Per example in biology, vegetal species are homogenous at macroscale that allows their classification, while there are widely heterogeneous at microscale. In nature, plants achieve robustness from cell that are highly heterogeneous in size, shape, and cell type. Back to colloid science, we can associate to the balance between heterogeneity and homogeneity the concept of model and robust system.
The objective of this project is to design “model” and “robust” soft colloids, to investigate the impact of their homogeneous/heterogeneous internal structures on properties. Moreover, we aim to achieve this objective with a bio-based polymer, the chitosan. Comparison between “Model” and “robust” Greener soft colloids will be discussed in term of fundamental approach, performances and biodegradability, to finally explore specific applications.