Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 7: Hydrogels and Microgels

CPP 7.1: Talk

Monday, March 16, 2020, 12:30–12:45, ZEU 255

Functional, responsive microgels enlightened with super-resolution fluorescence microscopy — •Dominik Wöll, Laura Hoppe Alvarez, Eric Siemes, Ashvini Purohit, and Silvia Centeno Benigno — Institut für Physikalische Chemie, RWTH Aachen University, Landoltweg 2, 52074 Aachen

The elucidation of the structure and functionalization of materials in the sub-micron range is a key to their further development and application. Microgels are a class of such soft materials with high potential for multiple fields. Several groups have learnt to functionalize and structure microgels in sophisticated ways, but the evaluation of a successful functionalization or the envisioned properties are often limited by the ways of analysis and visualization. The development of modern super-resolved fluorescence microscopy methods opened up new ways of nanoscopic visualization that had not been possible previously due to the diffraction limit of light prohibiting spatial resolution beyond approx. 200 nm. In my contribution, the possibilities to elucidate shape and functionalization, to visualize single cross-linker positions and to address local polarity in microgels with 3D super-resolution fluorescence imaging will be discussed, and ways presented to address and answer scientific questions in soft matter science.