57 research outputs found
Effect of many-body interactions on the solid-liquid phase-behavior of charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions
The solid-liquid phase-diagram of charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions is
calculated using a technique that combines a continuous Poisson-Boltzmann
description for the microscopic electrolyte ions with a molecular-dynamics
simulation for the macroionic colloidal spheres. While correlations between the
microions are neglected in this approach, many-body interactions between the
colloids are fully included. The solid-liquid transition is determined at a
high colloid volume fraction where many-body interactions are expected to be
strong. With a view to the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory predicting
that colloids interact via Yukawa pair-potentials, we compare our results with
the phase diagram of a simple Yukawa liquid. Good agreement is found at high
salt conditions, while at low ionic strength considerable deviations are
observed. By calculating effective colloid-colloid pair-interactions it is
demonstrated that these differences are due to many-body interactions. We
suggest a density-dependent pair-potential in the form of a truncated Yukawa
potential, and show that it offers a considerably improved description of the
solid-liquid phase-behavior of concentrated colloidal suspensions
Poisson -- Boltzmann Brownian Dynamics of Charged Colloids in Suspension
We describe a method to simulate the dynamics of charged colloidal particles
suspended in a liquid containing dissociated ions and salt ions. Regimes of
prime current interest are those of large volume fraction of colloids, highly
charged particles and low salt concentrations. A description which is tractable
under these conditions is obtained by treating the small dissociated and salt
ions as continuous fields, while keeping the colloidal macroions as discrete
particles. For each spatial configuration of the macroions, the electrostatic
potential arising from all charges in the system is determined by solving the
nonlinear Poisson--Boltzmann equation. From the electrostatic potential, the
forces acting on the macroions are calculated and used in a Brownian dynamics
simulation to obtain the motion of the latter. The method is validated by
comparison to known results in a parameter regime where the effective
interaction between the macroions is of a pairwise Yukawa form
Pseudo-Casimir force in confined nematic polymers
We investigate the pseudo-Casimir force in a slab of material composed of
nematically ordered long polymers. We write the total mesoscopic energy
together with the constraint connecting the local density and director
fluctuations and evaluate the corresponding fluctuation free energy by standard
methods. It leads to a pseudo-Casimir force of a different type than in the
case of standard, short molecule nematic. We investigate its separation
dependence and its magnitude and explicitly derive the relevant limiting cases.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Testing the relevance of effective interaction potentials between highly charged colloids in suspension
Combining cell and Jellium model mean-field approaches, Monte Carlo together
with integral equation techniques, and finally more demanding many-colloid
mean-field computations, we investigate the thermodynamic behavior, pressure
and compressibility of highly charged colloidal dispersions, and at a more
microscopic level, the force distribution acting on the colloids. The
Kirkwood-Buff identity provides a useful probe to challenge the
self-consistency of an approximate effective screened Coulomb (Yukawa)
potential between colloids. Two effective parameter models are put to the test:
cell against renormalized Jellium models
Three-body interactions in colloidal systems
We present the first direct measurement of three-body interactions in a
colloidal system comprised of three charged colloidal particles. Two of the
particles have been confined by means of a scanned laser tweezers to a
line-shaped optical trap where they diffused due to thermal fluctuations. Upon
the approach of a third particle, attractive three-body interactions have been
observed. The results are in qualitative agreement with additionally performed
nonlinear Poissson-Boltzmann calculations, which also allow us to investigate
the microionic density distributions in the neighborhood of the interacting
colloidal particles
Colloidal ionic complexes on periodic substrates: ground state configurations and pattern switching
We theoretically and numerically studied ordering of "colloidal ionic
clusters" on periodic substrate potentials as those generated by optical
trapping. Each cluster consists of three charged spherical colloids: two
negatively and one positively charged. The substrate is a square or rectangular
array of traps, each confining one such cluster. By varying the lattice
constant from large to small, the observed clusters are first rod-like and form
ferro- and antiferro-like phases, then they bend into a banana-like shape and
finally condense into a percolated structure. Remarkably, in a broad parameter
range between single-cluster and percolated structures, we have found stable
supercomplexes composed of six colloids forming grape-like or rocket-like
structures. We investigated the possibility of macroscopic pattern switching by
applying external electrical fields.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figure
On the nature of long-range contributions to pair interactions between charged colloids in two dimensions
We perform a detailed analysis of solutions of the inverse problem applied to
experimentally measured two-dimensional radial distribution functions for
highly charged latex dispersions. The experiments are carried out at high
colloidal densities and under low-salt conditions. At the highest studied
densities, the extracted effective pair potentials contain long-range
attractive part. At the same time, we find that for the best distribution
functions available the range of stability of the solutions is limited by the
nearest neighbour distance between the colloidal particles. Moreover, the
measured pair distribution functions can be explained by purely repulsive pair
potentials contained in the stable part of the solution.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Three- and four-body interactions in colloidal systems
Three-body and four-body interactions have been directly measured in a
colloidal system comprised of three (or four) charged colloidal particles. Two
of the particles have been confined by means of a scanned laser tweezers to a
line-shaped optical trap where they diffused due to thermal fluctuations. By
means of an additional focused optical trap a third particle has been
approached and attractive three-body interactions have been observed. These
observations are in qualitative agreement with additionally performed nonlinear
Poissson-Boltzmann calculations. Two configurations of four particles have been
studied experimentally as well and in both cases a repulsive four-body
interaction term has been observed
Designing stimulus-sensitive colloidal walkers.
Colloidal particles with DNA "legs" that can bind reversibly to receptors on a surface can be made to 'walk' if there is a gradient in receptor concentration. We use a combination of theory and Monte Carlo simulations to explore how controllable parameters, e.g. coating density and binding strength, affect the dynamics of such colloids. We find that competition between thermodynamic and kinetic trends imply that there is an optimal value for both the binding strength and the number of "legs" for which transport is the fastest. Using available thermodynamic data on DNA binding, we indicate how directionally reversible, temperature-controlled transport of colloidal walkers can be achieved. In particular, the present results should make it possible to design a chromatographic technique that can be used to separate colloids with different DNA functionalizations
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