Thermodynamic and hydrodynamic interaction in concentrated microgel suspensions: Hard or soft sphere behavior?

The colloidal phase behavior, structure factors, short-time collective diffusion coefficients, and hydrodynamic interactions of concentrated poly(N-isopropylacryamide) (PNiPAM) microgels in dimethylformamide suspensions were measured with simultaneous static and dynamic three-dimensional cross-correlated light scattering. The data are interpreted through comparison with hard sphere theory. The fluid-crystal transition and the static structure factors can be described consistently by the hard sphere approximation. On the other hand, collective diffusion and hydrodynamic interaction cannot be described satisfactorily by the hard sphere model. The microgel structure is different from hard spheres, as the cross-link density decreases with the distance from the particle center leading to a "fuzzy" particle surface with dangling polymer chains. These seem to affect the hydrodynamic interaction much more as compared to direct thermodynamic interaction.