Journal: Soft Matter

Article Title: In situ characterization of crystallization and melting of soft, thermoresponsive microgels by small-angle X-ray scattering †

doi: 10.1039/d1sm01537k

Figure Lengend Snippet: Scheme of the USAXS setup at the Coherence Applications Beamline P10 at PETRA III synchrotron storage ring. The beam was shaped with 50 × 50 μm 2 slits before passing through the sample. The core–shell microgel dispersions were sealed in the glass capillaries. The scattering pattern was detected by an EIGER X 4M detector positioned 21.3 m behind the sample. Diffraction pattern shown in this figure was collected at T = 35 °C. Families of Bragg peaks are indicated in the caption. For the crystalline sample this results in distinct Bragg peaks in the 2D USAXS pattern that are assigned to a random hexagonal close-packed ( rhcp ) crystal structure oriented along the [0001] axis. The inset on the bottom left shows a schematic representation of the swelling/deswelling behaviour of the PNIPAM shell of the CS microgels upon cooling/heating, resulting in a phase transition from a fluid to a crystal phase and vice versa .

Article Snippet: The dispersions (∼20 μL) were placed into flat capillaries (4 × 0.2 × 50 mm 3 , internal dimensions, Vitrocom) by employing a reduced pressure method.

Techniques: Sublimation