PSSM Workshop on Liquid Crystals and Colloidal Dispersions
Theoretical investigations of effective interactions in colloidal suspensions.
Pavel Bryk, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University
Abstract: Effective interactions between macroparticles play a key role in predicting the stability of colloidal suspensions. The bare interactions between macroparticles are attractive at larger separations due to the dispersion forces between the atoms forming the colloidal particles. In order to prevent aggregation the colloidal suspension must be stabilized either by charge or sterically. Technical developments during last two decades made it possible to prepare well-defined colloidal suspensions. With the help of video-microscopy and total internal reflection microscopy effective interactions in colloidal suspensions can be measured directly, and compared with theoretical predictions.
In this talk I will present the results of investigations of the effective interactions in colloidal systems using modern liquid-state theories. I will discuss the depletion interactions between a large colloidal particle, immersed in a "sea" of smaller colloidal particles, and various substrates. The large colloidal particle is modelled as a hard sphere, and the substrate has a certain geometrical (like a wedge, or an edge, or a regular pattern created by decorating a structureless wall by hemispheres), or thermodynamical feature (like semipermeability to some of the components of a multicomponent mixture). These results will be discussed in the context of possible experimental realisations of such systems.
I will also address the question of the onset of polydispersity on the effective interactions in colloidal suspensions with the attractive/repulsive bare interactions.
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Workshop poster
Important Dates
| June 10, 2009: | Final Program |
| June 22, 2009: | PSSM Workshop |
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