Structure of charged colloid-polymer mixtures

We use a light scattering technique to investigate the effect of adding non-adsorbing charged polymers to a very dilute electrostatically stabilized colloidal suspension at low electrolyte concentration. The experimental results show that, as the polymer concentration increases, the main peak of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2010-05, Vol.90 (4), p.46005
Main Authors: Pelaez, M, Moncho, Fernandez A, Callejas, Jorda J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
61.20.-p
82.70.Dd
Charging
Colloids
Depletion
Dilution
Electrolytes
Electrostatics
Polymers
Prisms
Screening
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Summary:We use a light scattering technique to investigate the effect of adding non-adsorbing charged polymers to a very dilute electrostatically stabilized colloidal suspension at low electrolyte concentration. The experimental results show that, as the polymer concentration increases, the main peak of the colloid-colloid structure factor moves to higher q-values, which cannot be only due to the screening of the direct colloid-colloid electrostatic repulsion. We show that the colloid-polymer electrostatic repulsions lead to enhanced depletion forces that have a strong influence on the colloid structure, even for diluted suspensions. The experimental results are interpreted using the off-lattice Polymer Reference Interaction Site Model (PRISM), and very good agreement is found for all polymer concentrations.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/0295-5075/90/46005