Phase behavior in highly concentrated assemblies of microgels with soft repulsive interaction potentials.

Microgel particles with a soft repulsive interaction potential are investigated with particle tracking methods to study the phase behavior of soft-sphere systems. The use of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) particles allows the effective volume fraction of a sample to be tuned via thermal modulation without altering the particle number density. This allows for investigation of the phase behavior of an assembly as a function of its initial packing density. In particular, we have elucidated the influence of soft colloid "overpacking" on the freezing effective volume fraction (phieff,f). These studies thereby illustrate the interplay between energetics/packing forces occurring at the colloidal and polymer chain length scales.