Determination of the bulk modulus of microgel particles.

In this paper, we present an in-depth study of a non-invasive method to determine the bulk modulus of microgel particles. The method relies on measuring the particle size as a function of external osmotic pressure using dynamic light scattering to measure the particle size and dextran solutions to change the osmotic pressure. An independent characterization of the dynamic response of the dextran solutions is required in order to obtain the microgel size in the microgel/dextran mixtures. The method works fine in most cases except for slightly crosslinked microgels, where the scattering from the particles is comparable to the scattering from the dextrans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]