Bioengineering Sustainable Microgel Particles and Multiscale Characterization of Material Properties

微凝胶颗粒是一种可变形的功能性软材料，由聚合物在溶剂中交联而成，这些颗粒的大小从数百纳米到几微米不等。微凝胶具有广泛的工业应用，如乳液和泡沫稳定，药物输送，生物传感，它们也可用作润滑剂，可切换材料，诊断，粘度调节剂，细胞底物等。尽管合成、实验和模拟方法的进步已经阐明了设计原则，并将微凝胶置于软物质研究的前沿，但很少有人关注使用植物基材料设计可持续的微凝胶。用植物蛋白设计微凝胶具有挑战性，因为它们复杂的四级结构导致其水溶性差，并且在自然状态下具有很强的自聚集倾向并与其他代谢物（如多酚）结合。在这个跨学科的博士项目中，包括来自食品胶体、营养学、生物物理学、理论物理学和Oatly合作者的学者，我们的目标是设计一种新的基于植物的可持续微凝胶，并对与工业加工和口腔加工相关的结构特征和机械性能之间的关系产生新的基本理解。学生将使用一系列生物技术和物理方法，利用燕麦蛋白多糖和离子创造出新型的可持续微凝胶。除了结合多种技术（如光散射、SAXS、SANS、共聚焦和电子显微镜成像、流变学、摩擦学、Rheo-SANS）在宏观到纳米尺度上的结构-性能关系的实验工作外，还将进行微凝胶在单颗粒水平上的粗颗粒建模以及微凝胶-微凝胶相互作用水平的预测理论指示，以提供体性能的预测理论指示。学生也将有一个有趣的机会去瑞典的研发中心实习。

Microgel particles are deformable functional soft materials made by crosslinking polymers in a solvent with sizes of these particles ranging from hundreds of nanometers to several micrometers. Microgels have a wide range of industrial applications, such as emulsion and foam stabilization, drug delivery, biosensing and they also serve as lubricants, switchable materials, diagnostics, viscosity modifiers, cell substrates etc. Although advances in synthesis, experimental and simulation methodologies have clarified design principles and put microgels at the forefront of soft matter research, little focus has been placed in designing sustainable microgels using plant-based materials. Designing microgels with plant proteins is challenging because of their poor aqueous solubility arising from the complex quaternary structure, and their strong tendency for self-aggregation and association with other metabolites such as polyphenols in the natural state. In this interdisciplinary PhD project involving academics from Food Colloids, Nutrition, Biophysics, Theoretical Physics and Collaborators from Oatly, we aim to design new plant-based sustainable microgel and create new fundamental understanding of the relationship between structural features and mechanical properties relevant to industrial processing as well as oral processing in the mouth. The student will create novel sustainable microgels using oat protein polysaccharides and ions using an array of biotechnological and physical approaches. In addition to experimental work on structure-property relationship at macro-to-nanoscale combining multiple techniques (e.g. light scattering, SAXS, SANS, confocal and electron microscopy imaging, rheology, tribology, Rheo-SANS), coarse grain modelling of microgels at single particle level as well as microgel-microgel interaction levels will be carried out to provide a predictive theoretical indication of bulk properties. There will be also an interesting opportunity for the student to also do a placement at Sweden in the R&D facility.