Search results for "Colloid"
showing 10 items of 1288 documents
Multipolar expansion of the electrostatic interaction between charged colloids at interfaces
2007
The general form of the electrostatic potential around an arbitrarily charged colloid at an interface between a dielectric and a screening phase (such as air and water, respectively) is analyzed in terms of a multipole expansion. The leading term is isotropic in the interfacial plane and varies with $d^{-3}$ where $d$ is the in--plane distance from the colloid. The electrostatic interaction potential between two arbitrarily charged colloids is likewise isotropic and $\propto d^{-3}$, corresponding to the dipole--dipole interaction first found for point charges at water interfaces. Anisotropic interaction terms arise only for higher powers $d^{-n}$ with $n \ge 4$.
Colloidal crystal motion in electric fields
2003
Abstract We report on the short and long time flow behaviour of colloidal crystals subjected to a homogeneous electrical square wave a.c.-field in closed cells of rectangular cross section. Local velocities are determined from Laser Doppler velocimetry, sample structure and morphology were observed by time resolved polarisation microscopy. We observe a complex time dependence of the flow behaviour. After each field reversal we find a transition from an initial parabola-like flow to a final plug-like flow. On the time scale of minutes to hours channel narrowing occurs, i.e. flow initially restricted by the cell walls becomes restricted to the cell centre by wall based stationary crystals. Wi…
Estimation of the critical behavior in an active colloidal system with Vicsek-like interactions
2016
We study numerically the critical behavior of a modified, active Asakura-Oosawa model for colloid-polymer mixtures. The colloids are modeled as self-propelled particles with Vicsek-like interactions. This system undergoes phase separation between a colloid-rich and a polymer-rich phase, whereby the phase diagram depends on the strength of the Vicsek-like interactions. Employing a subsystem-block-density distribution analysis, we determine the critical point and make an attempt to estimate the critical exponents. In contrast to the passive model, we find that the critical point is not located on the rectilinear diameter. A first estimate of the critical exponents $\beta$ and $\nu$ is consist…
Microscopic approach to the kinetics of pattern formation of charged molecules on surfaces.
2010
A microscopic formalism based on computing many-particle densities is applied to the analysis of the diffusion-controlled kinetics of pattern formation in oppositely charged molecules on surfaces or adsorbed at interfaces with competing long-range Coulomb and short-range Lennard-Jones interactions. Particular attention is paid to the proper molecular treatment of energetic interactions driving pattern formation in inhomogeneous systems. The reverse Monte Carlo method is used to visualize the spatial molecular distribution based on the calculated radial distribution functions (joint correlation functions). We show the formation of charge domains for certain combinations of temperature and dy…
Single-File Diffusion of Colloids in One-Dimensional Channels
2004
We study the diffusive behavior of colloidal particles which are confined to one-dimensional channels generated by scanning optical tweezers. At long times t, the mean-square displacement is found to scale as t(1/2), which is expected for systems where single-file diffusion occurs. In addition, we experimentally obtain the long-time, self-diffusive behavior from the short-time collective density fluctuations of the system as suggested by a recent analytical approach [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 180602 (2003)]. published
Brownian dynamics simulations with hard-body interactions: Spherical particles
2012
A novel approach to account for hard-body interactions in (overdamped) Brownian dynamics simulations is proposed for systems with non-vanishing force fields. The scheme exploits the analytically known transition probability for a Brownian particle on a one-dimensional half-line. The motion of a Brownian particle is decomposed into a component that is affected by hard-body interactions and into components that are unaffected. The hard-body interactions are incorporated by replacing the affected component of motion by the evolution on a half-line. It is discussed under which circumstances this approach is justified. In particular, the algorithm is developed and formulated for systems with spa…
Transfer coefficients for evaporation of a system with a Lennard-Jones long-range spline potential
2007
International audience; Surface transfer coefficients are determined by nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations for a Lennard-Jones fluid with a long-range spline potential. In earlier work A. Røsjorde et al., J. Colloid Interface Sci. 240, 355 2001; J. Xu et al., ibid. 299, 452 2006, using a short-range Lennard-Jones spline potential, it was found that the resistivity coefficients to heat and mass transfer agreed rather well with the values predicted by kinetic theory. For the long-range Lennard-Jones spline potential considered in this paper we find significant discrepancies from the values predicted by kinetic theory. In particular the coupling coefficient, and as a consequence the…
Critical phenomena in polymer mixtures: Monte Carlo simulation of a lattice model
1987
A lattice model of a symmetrical binary (AB) polymer mixture is studied, modelling the polymer chains by self-avoiding walks withN A =N B =N steps on a simple cubic lattice. If a pair of nearest neighbour sites is taken by different monomersAB orBA, an energye ab is won; if the pair of sites is taken by anAA or aBB pair, an energye is won, while the energy is reduced to zero if at least one of the sites of the pair is vacant. To allow enough chain mobility, 20% of the lattice sites are vacancies. In addition to local motions of the chain segments we use a novel “grand-canonical” simulation technique:A chains are transformed intoB chains and vice versa, keeping the chemical potential differe…
Scattering from concentration fluctuations in polymer blends: A monte carlo investigation
1989
The collective scattering function Scoll( $$\vec q$$ ), which describes light (neutron-, x-ray) scattering under wavevector $$\vec q$$ , is obtained from Monte Carlo simulations for a symmetrical polymer mixture. The polymers are modelled by self-avoiding walks ofN A=NB=N steps on a simple cubic lattice, where a fractionφ V of sites is left vacant, and an attractive energye occurs if two neighboring sites are taken by the same kind of monomer. Spinodal curves are estimated from linear extrapolation of S coll −1 (0) vs.e/k B T, whereT is the temperature. Also the single chain structure factor is obtained and the de Gennes random phase approximation (RPA) can thus be tested. Unexpectedly, str…
Stability and interactions of nanocolloids at fluid interfaces: effects of capillary waves and line tensions
2008
We analyze the effective potential for nanoparticles trapped at a fluid interface within a simple model which incorporates surface and line tensions as well as a thermal average over interface fluctuations (capillary waves). For a single colloid, a reduced steepness of the potential well hindering movements out of the interface plane compared to rigid interface models is observed, and an instability of the capillary wave partition sum in case of negative line tensions is pointed out. For two colloids, averaging over the capillary waves leads to an effective Casimir--type interaction which is long--ranged, power-like in the inverse distance but whose power sensitively depends on possible res…