Colloidomers: freely-jointed polymers made of droplets

TL;DR

This paper introduces colloidomers, programmable droplet-based polymers with freely-jointed chains that can be assembled and disassembled repeatedly, demonstrating controlled valence, conformational properties, and dynamic reconfigurability.

Contribution

It presents a novel method to create reconfigurable colloidomer polymers with controlled valence and conformational dynamics, aligning with polymer physics theories.

Findings

Chains are freely-jointed with end-to-end length scaling as N^{3/4}.

Chain diffusion coefficient scales as D ∝ N^{-3/4}.

Colloidomers can be repeatedly assembled and disassembled via temperature cycling.

Abstract

An important goal of self-assembly is to achieve a preprogrammed structure with high fidelity. Here, we control the valence of DNA-functionalized emulsions to make linear and branched model polymers, or `colloidomers'. The distribution of cluster sizes is consistent with a polymerization process in which the droplets achieve their prescribed valence. Conformational dynamics reveals that the chains are freely-jointed, such that the end-to-end length scales with the number of bonds $N$ as $N^{\nu}$, where $\nu\approx3/4$, in agreement with the Flory theory in 2D. The chain diffusion coefficient $D$ approximately scales as $D\propto N^{-\nu}$, as predicted by the Zimm model. Unlike molecular polymers, colloidomers can be repeatedly assembled and disassembled under temperature cycling, allowing for reconfigurable, responsive matter.