Objective
The growing demand for advanced soft and stimuli-responsive materials has generated interest in developing deformable micro- and nano-scale particles with programmable transformations. Colloidal microgels–cross-linked polymer networks that undergo reversible isotropic volume changes–stand out for their responsiveness to stimuli like temperature. However, despite innovations that have greatly extended their functionalities, architectures and shapes, their responses are typically limited to simple size changes. Expanding these capabilities to include complex, non-spherical deformations and anisotropic behaviours could significantly enhance their potential in applications such as photonics, microfluidics, biomedicine, and microrobotics.
To overcome these limitations, we propose developing Liquid-Crystal Microgels (LCMGs)–a novel class of soft colloidal particles combining the stimuli-responsive properties of microgels with the anisotropic behaviour of liquid crystals. By incorporating anisotropic mesogenic monomers, LCMGs will exhibit programmable, reversible shape and size transitions in response to external stimuli, providing enhanced design flexibility of their deformability and adaptive properties.
This research will employ a multi-scale modelling approach to understand how the interplay between the orientational order of liquid crystals and polymer connectivity and elasticity affects the physical properties and responsive behaviour of LCMGs. The goal is to develop a robust computational theoretical framework and simulation tools and models for predicting and designing the properties of LCMGs, and to explore the tailorable collective behaviour of these particles able to toggle between multiple shapes, sizes and inter-particle interactions. This will lay the basis for their experimental realisation and pave the way for multifunctional, reconfigurable materials with advanced applications, and ultimately stimulate new research in soft matter and biological physics.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
00185 Roma
Italy