Modeling mechanics of large colloidal microgel suspensions

Large colloidal suspensions, comprised of soft and deformable microgel particles, exhibit a rich mechanical and phase behavior. As the particle density increases above close packing, individual particles start to deform and interpenetrate. Experimentally, these systems exhibit a high energy storage capacity and fast response times which makes them particularly attractive as self-healing and reconfigurable materials. The soft nature of the particles and their responsiveness to stimuli, such as temperature and pH, allows for external control of the emergence of liquid, liquid-crystal, and glassy phases. In our work, we utilize dissipative particle dynamics to construct large colloidal suspensions and study how the mechanical behavior of these suspensions changes with packing fraction and solvency. The colloidal suspensions are represented by an array of soft and deformable polymeric gels which are comprised of interconnected of polymer chains. We seek to determine how the behavior of individual chain parameters affects the underlying mechanical behavior of the suspensions in this multiscale system.