2,927 research outputs found
Fluid structure in the immediate vicinity of an equilibrium three-phase contact line and assessment of disjoining pressure models using density functional theory
We examine the nanoscale behavior of an equilibrium three-phase contact line
in the presence of long-ranged intermolecular forces by employing a statistical
mechanics of fluids approach, namely density functional theory (DFT) together
with fundamental measure theory (FMT). This enables us to evaluate the
predictive quality of effective Hamiltonian models in the vicinity of the
contact line. In particular, we compare the results for mean field effective
Hamiltonians with disjoining pressures defined through (I) the adsorption
isotherm for a planar liquid film, and (II) the normal force balance at the
contact line. We find that the height profile obtained using (I) shows good
agreement with the adsorption film thickness of the DFT-FMT equilibrium density
profile in terms of maximal curvature and the behavior at large film heights.
In contrast, we observe that while the height profile obtained by using (II)
satisfies basic sum rules, it shows little agreement with the adsorption film
thickness of the DFT results. The results are verified for contact angles of
20, 40 and 60 degrees
Exact Casimir interaction between eccentric cylinders
The Casimir force is the ultimate background in ongoing searches of
extra-gravitational forces in the micrometer range. Eccentric cylinders offer
favorable experimental conditions for such measurements as spurious
gravitational and electrostatic effects can be minimized. Here we report on the
evaluation of the exact Casimir interaction between perfectly conducting
eccentric cylinders using a mode summation technique, and study different
limiting cases of relevance for Casimir force measurements, with potential
implications for the understanding of mechanical properties of nanotubes.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Nonlinear screening of charged macromolecules
We present several aspects of the screening of charged macromolecules in an
electrolyte. After a review of the basic mean field approach, based on the
linear Debye-Huckel theory, we consider the case of highly charged
macromolecules, where the linear approximation breaks down and the system is
described by full nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation. Some analytical results
for this nonlinear equation give some interesting insight on physical phenomena
like the charge renormalization and the Manning counterion condensation
Dynamics of liquid nanofilms
The van der Waals forces across a very thin liquid layer (nanofilm) in
contact with a plane solid wall make the liquid nonhomogeneous. The dynamics of
such flat liquid nanofilms is studied in isothermal case. The Navier-Stokes
equations are unable to describe fluid motions in very thin films. The notion
of surface free energy of a sharp interface separating gas and liquid layer is
disqualified. The concept of disjoining pressure replaces the model of surface
energy. In the nanofilm a supplementary free energy must be considered as a
functional of the density. The equation of fluid motions along the nanofilm is
obtained through the Hamilton variational principle by adding, to the
conservative forces, the forces of viscosity in lubrication approximation. The
evolution equation of the film thickness is deduced and takes into account the
variation of the disjoining pressure along the layer.Comment: 13 pages. International Journal of Engineering Science /
International Journal of Engineering Sciences 46 (2008) to appea
Ground state of two unlike charged colloids: An analogy with ionic bonding
In this letter, we study the ground state of two spherical macroions of
identical radius, but asymmetric bare charge ((Q_{A}>Q_{B})). Electroneutrality
of the system is insured by the presence of the surrounding divalent
counterions. Using Molecular Dynamics simulations within the framework of the
primitive model, we show that the ground state of such a system consists of an
overcharged and an undercharged colloid. For a given macroion separation the
stability of these ionized-like states is a function of the difference
((\sqrt{N_{A}}-\sqrt{N_{B}})) of neutralizing counterions (N_{A}) and (N_{B}).
Furthermore the degree of ionization, or equivalently, the degree of
overcharging, is also governed by the distance separation of the macroions. The
natural analogy with ionic bonding is briefly discussed.Comment: published versio
Proximity Effects in Radiative Transfer
Though the dependence of near-field radiative transfer on the gap between two
planar objects is well understood, that between curved objects is still
unclear. We show, based on the analysis of the surface polariton mediated
radiative transfer between two spheres of equal radii and minimum gap ,
that the near--field radiative transfer scales as as
and as for larger values of up to the far--field limit. We
propose a modified form of the proximity approximation to predict near--field
radiative transfer between curved objects from simulations of radiative
transfer between planar surfaces.Comment: 5 journal pages, 4 figure
Studies on electrostatic interactions of colloidal particles under two-dimensional confinement
We study the effective electrostatic interactions between a pair of charged
colloidal particles without salt ions while the system is confined in two
dimensions. In particular we use a simplified model to elucidate the effects of
rotational fluctuations in counterion distribution. The results exhibit
effective colloidal attractions under appropriate conditions. Meanwhile,
long-range repulsions persist over most of our studied cases. The repulsive
forces arise from the fact that in two dimensions the charged colloids cannot
be perfectly screened by counterions, as the residual quadrupole moments
contribute to the repulsions at longer range. And by applying multiple
expansions we find that the attractive forces observed at short range are
mainly contributed from electrostatic interactions among higher-order electric
moments. We argue that the scenario for attractive interactions discussed in
this work is applicable to systems of charged nanoparticles or colloidal
solutions with macroions.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures, 1 tabl
Effective interactions in the colloidal suspensions from HNC theory
The HNC Ornstein-Zernike integral equations are used to determine the
properties of simple models of colloidal solutions where the colloids and ions
are immersed in a solvent considered as a dielectric continuum and have a size
ratio equal to 80 and a charge ratio varying between 1 and 4000. At an infinite
dilution of colloids, the effective interactions between colloids and ions are
determined for ionic concentrations ranging from 0.001 to 0.1 mol/l and
compared to those derived from the Poisson-Boltzmann theory. At finite
concentrations, we discuss on the basis of the HNC results the possibility of
an unambiguous definition of the effective interactions between the colloidal
molecules.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figure
Screening of charged spheroidal colloidal particles
We study the effective screened electrostatic potential created by a
spheroidal colloidal particle immersed in an electrolyte, within the mean field
approximation, using Poisson--Botzmann equation in its linear and nonlinear
forms, and also beyond the mean field by means of Monte Carlo computer
simulation. The anisotropic shape of the particle has a strong effect on the
screened potential, even at large distances (compared to the Debye length) from
it. To quantify this anisotropy effect, we focus our study on the dependence of
the potential on the position of the observation point with respect with the
orientation of the spheroidal particle. For several different boundary
conditions (constant potential, or constant surface charge) we find that, at
large distance, the potential is higher in the direction of the large axis of
the spheroidal particle
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