6533b7d8fe1ef96bd126b879
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Simulation and theory of fluid demixing and interfacial tension of mixtures of colloids and nonideal polymers.
Matthias SchmidtRichard L. C. Vinksubject
chemistry.chemical_classificationBinodalQuantitative Biology::BiomoleculesMaterials scienceThermodynamicsFOS: Physical sciencesPolymerCondensed Matter - Soft Condensed MatterAtomic packing factorSurface tensionCondensed Matter::Soft Condensed MatterColloidchemistrySoft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)Density functional theoryPair potentialGrand canonical monte carlodescription
An extension of the Asakura-Oosawa-Vrij model of hard sphere colloids and non-adsorbing polymers, that takes polymer non-ideality into account through a repulsive stepfunction pair potential between polymers, is studied with grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations and density functional theory. Simulation results validate previous theoretical findings for the shift of the bulk fluid demixing binodal upon increasing strength of polymer-polymer repulsion, promoting the tendency to mix. For increasing strength of the polymer-polymer repulsion, simulation and theory consistently predict the interfacial tension of the free colloidal liquid-gas interface to decrease significantly for fixed colloid density difference in the coexisting phases, and to increase for fixed polymer reservoir packing fraction.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-01-04 | Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics |