Electroneutrality and Phase Behavior of Colloidal Suspensions

Several statistical mechanical theories predict that colloidal suspensions of highly charged macroions and monovalent microions can exhibit unusual thermodynamic phase behavior when strongly deionized. Density-functional, extended Debye-H\"uckel, and response theories, within mean-field and linearization approximations, predict a spinodal phase instability of charged colloids below a critical salt concentration. Poisson-Boltzmann cell model studies of suspensions in Donnan equilibrium with a salt reservoir demonstrate that effective interactions and osmotic pressures predicted by such theories can be sensitive to the choice of reference system, e.g., whether the microion density profiles are expanded about the average potential of the suspension or about the reservoir potential. By unifying Poisson-Boltzmann and response theories within a common perturbative framework, it is shown here that the choice of reference system is dictated by the constraint of global electroneutrality. On this basis, bulk suspensions are best modeled by density-dependent effective interactions derived from a closed reference system in which the counterions are confined to the same volume as the macroions. Linearized theories then predict bulk phase separation of deionized suspensions only when expanded about a physically consistent (closed) reference system. Lower-dimensional systems (e.g., monolayers, small clusters), depending on the strength of macroion-counterion correlations, may be governed instead by density-independent effective interactions tied to an open reference system with counterions dispersed throughout the reservoir, possibly explaining observed structural crossover in colloidal monolayers and anomalous metastability of colloidal crystallites.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. Discussion clarified, references adde

Torsionally rigid and thermally stable boom

Design of rigid thermally stable beryllium copper extendible boom for space application

Autonomous flight and remote site landing guidance research for helicopters

Automated low-altitude flight and landing in remote areas within a civilian environment are investigated, where initial cost, ongoing maintenance costs, and system productivity are important considerations. An approach has been taken which has: (1) utilized those technologies developed for military applications which are directly transferable to a civilian mission; (2) exploited and developed technology areas where new methods or concepts are required; and (3) undertaken research with the potential to lead to innovative methods or concepts required to achieve a manual and fully automatic remote area low-altitude and landing capability. The project has resulted in a definition of system operational concept that includes a sensor subsystem, a sensor fusion/feature extraction capability, and a guidance and control law concept. These subsystem concepts have been developed to sufficient depth to enable further exploration within the NASA simulation environment, and to support programs leading to the flight test

Charge Renormalization, Effective Interactions, and Thermodynamics of Deionized Colloidal Suspensions

Thermodynamic properties of charge-stabilised colloidal suspensions depend sensitively on the effective charge of the macroions, which can be substantially lower than the bare charge in the case of strong counterion-macroion association. A theory of charge renormalization is proposed, combining an effective one-component model of charged colloids with a thermal criterion for distinguishing between free and associated counterions. The theory predicts, with minimal computational effort, osmotic pressures of deionized suspensions of highly charged colloids in close agreement with large-scale simulations of the primitive model.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

Poisson-Boltzmann Theory of Charged Colloids: Limits of the Cell Model for Salty Suspensions

Thermodynamic properties of charge-stabilised colloidal suspensions are commonly modeled by implementing the mean-field Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) theory within a cell model. This approach models a bulk system by a single macroion, together with counterions and salt ions, confined to a symmetrically shaped, electroneutral cell. While easing solution of the nonlinear PB equation, the cell model neglects microion-induced correlations between macroions, precluding modeling of macroion ordering phenomena. An alternative approach, avoiding artificial constraints of cell geometry, maps a macroion-microion mixture onto a one-component model of pseudo-macroions governed by effective interactions. In practice, effective-interaction models are usually based on linear screening approximations, which can accurately describe nonlinear screening only by incorporating an effective (renormalized) macroion charge. Combining charge renormalization and linearized PB theories, in both the cell model and an effective-interaction (cell-free) model, we compute osmotic pressures of highly charged colloids and monovalent microions over a range of concentrations. By comparing predictions with primitive model simulation data for salt-free suspensions, and with predictions of nonlinear PB theory for salty suspensions, we chart the limits of both the cell model and linear-screening approximations in modeling bulk thermodynamic properties. Up to moderately strong electrostatic couplings, the cell model proves accurate in predicting osmotic pressures of deionized suspensions. With increasing salt concentration, however, the relative contribution of macroion interactions grows, leading predictions of the cell and effective-interaction models to deviate. No evidence is found for a liquid-vapour phase instability driven by monovalent microions. These results may guide applications of PB theory to soft materials.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures, special issue of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter on "Classical density functional theory methods in soft and hard matter