Effects of Polymer Molecular Weight on Structure and Dynamics of Colloid-Polymer Bridging Systems

We investigate the effects of polymer molecular weight on the structure and dynamics of a model colloid-polymer bridging system using confocal microscopy. Polymer-induced bridging interactions between trifluoroethyl methacrylate-co-tert-butyl methacrylate (TtMA) copolymer particles and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) polymers of molecular weight Mw of 130, 450, 3000, or 4000 kDa and normalized concentrations c/c* ranging from 0.05 to 2 are driven by hydrogen bonding of PAA to one of the particle stabilizers. At a constant particle volume fraction phi = 0.05, the particles form clusters or networks of maximal size at an intermediate polymer concentration and become more dispersed upon further addition of polymer. Increasing the polymer Mw at a fixed normalized concentration c/c* increases the cluster size: suspensions with 130 kDa polymer contain small clusters that remain diffusive, and those with 4000 kDa polymer form larger, dynamically arrested clusters. Biphasic suspensions with distinct populations of disperse and arrested particles form at low c/c*, where there is insufficient polymer to bridge all particles, or high c/c*, where some particles are sterically stabilized by the added polymer. Thus, the microstructure and dynamics in these mixtures can be tuned through the size and concentration of the bridging polymer.