Light-driven manipulation and ordering of spherical polymer brushes at solid liquid interfaces

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In this project we aim at generating core-shell particles consisting of micron-sized silica cores and a soft polymeric shell (brush) serving as a reservoir or storage facility for photosensitive surfactant. We have recently introduced the concept of light-driven diffusioosmotic flow (LDDO), which exhibits its most pronounced effects with porous silica particles, leading to mutual repulsion due to particle centred diffusioosmotic flow in the vicinity of solid-liquid interfaces in aqueous solution containing photosensitive surfactant. With this system we pursue two major goals: (i) the LDDO flow we want to make available for spherical brush systems in a similar manner. (ii) In addition to conveying long range light tunable interaction potential the polymer system offers the possibility of fine-tuning the short range interactions of the particles. This unique combination shall be exploited to facilitate the creation of stable colloidal aggregates and the creation of versatile ensembles of self-propelling agents with variable activity, hydrodynamic interactions and short range attraction.