Title: Interaction between like-charged colloidal particles in aqueous electrolyte solution: Attractive component arising from solvent granularity
Author(s):

	R.Akiyama (Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University, Ropponmatsu, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka, 810-8560, Japan; Institute for Molecular Science, Myodaiji, Okazaki, 444-8585, Japan) ,
	N.Fujino (Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University, Ropponmatsu, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka, 810-8560, Japan) ,
	K.Kaneda (Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University, Ropponmatsu, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka, 810-8560, Japan) ,
	M.Kinoshita (Institute of Advanced Energy, Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto, 611-0011, Japan)

The potential of mean force (PMF) between like-charged colloidal particles immersed in aqueous electrolyte solution is studied using the integral equation theory. Solvent molecules are modeled as neutral hard spheres, and ions and colloidal particles are taken to be charged hard spheres. The Coulomb potentials for ion-ion, ion-colloidal particle, and colloidal particle-colloidal particle pairs are divided by the dielectric constant of water. This simple model is employed to account for the effects of solvent granularity neglected in the so-called primitive model. The van der Waals attraction between colloidal particles, which is an essential constituent of conventional DLVO theory, is omitted in the present model. Nevertheless, when the electrolyte concentration is sufficiently high, attractive regions appear in the PMF. In particular, the interaction at small separations is significantly attractive and the contact of colloidal particles is stabilized. This interesting behavior arises from the effects of the translational motion of solvent molecules.

Key words: colloidal particle, electrolyte solution, potential of mean force, integral equation theory, DLVO theory, solvent granularity
PACS: 82.35.Rs, 82.35.Pq, 82.70.Dd, 83.80.Hj

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