Ultrasoft, highly deformable microgels

Microgels are colloidally stable, hydrogel microparticles that have previously been used in a range of (soft) material applications due to their tunable mechanical and chemical properties. Most commonly, thermo and pH-responsive poly( N -isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAm) microgels can be fabricated by precipitation polymerization in the presence of the co-monomer acrylic acid (AAc). Traditionally pNIPAm microgels are synthesized in the presence of a crosslinking agent, such as N , N ′-methylenebisacrylamide (BIS), however, microgels can also be synthesized under 'crosslinker free' conditions. The resulting particles have extremely low (