Related papers: Interactions between colloids induced by a soft cr…
The mutual electromagnetic correlations between two spatially separated systems gives rise to Casimir and Casimir-Polder effect. The corresponding forces, which are generally attractive for most vacuum-separated metallic or dielectric…
We consider directed semiflexible polymers embedded in a fluctuating surface which is governed by either surface tension or bending rigidity. The attractive interactions induced by the fluctuations of the surface reduce the rigidity of the…
We study the attractive interactions between rod-like charged polymers in solution that appear in the presence of multi-valence counterions. The counterions condensed to the rods exhibit both a strong transversal polarization and a…
The liquid-liquid phase separation of a binary solvent can be arrested by colloidal particles trapped at the interface [K. Stratford et al., Science 309, 5744 (2005)]. We show experimentally that the colloidal network so formed can remain…
We demonstrate that an extended picture of kinetic constraints in glass-forming liquids is sufficient to explain dynamic anomalies observed in dense suspensions of strongly attracting colloidal particles. We augment a simple model of…
Responsive poly-N-isopropylacrylamide-based microgels are commonly used as model colloids with soft repulsive interactions. It has been shown that the microgel-microgel interaction in solution can be easily adjusted by varying the…
We study theoretically situations where competition arises between an interdiffusion process and a cross-linking chemical reaction at interfaces between pieces of the same polymer material. An example of such a situation is observable in…
We calculate the interaction potential between two colloids immersed in an aqueous mixture containing salt near or above the critical temperature. We find an attractive interaction far from the coexistence curve due to the combination of…
Microgels are soft colloidal particles constituted by cross-linked polymer networks with a high potential for applications. In particular, after adsorption at a fluid interface, interfacial tension provides two-dimensional (2D) confinement…
By a length scale analysis, we study the equilibrium interactions between two like-charge planes confining neutralising counter-ions. At large Coulombic couplings, approaching the two charged bodies leads to an unbinding of counter-ions, a…
We investigate the phenomenon of multilayer formation via layer-by-layer deposition of alternating charge polyelectrolytes. Using mean-field theory, we find that a strong short-range attraction between the two types of polymer chains is…
Shapes of colloids matter at liquid interfaces. We explore the interactions between rough-surfaced nanocolloids at the air--water interface through the compaction of monolayers experimentally and numerically. Sufficiently rough systems…
We study theoretically and experimentally the solvent-mediated critical Casimir force acting on colloidal particles immersed in a binary liquid mixture of water and 2,6-lutidine and close to substrates which are chemically patterned with…
Over the past few decades the experimental literature has consistently reported observations of attraction between like-charged colloidal particles and macromolecules in solution. Examples include nucleic acids and colloidal particles in…
Within the framework of the mode-coupling theory of super-cooled liquids, we investigate new phenomena in colloidal systems on approach to their glass transitions. When the inter-particle potential contains an attractive part, besides the…
We study the structure and interfacial properties of model athermal mixtures of colloids and excluded volume polymers. The colloid particles are modeled as hard spheres whereas the polymer coils are modeled as chains formed from…
The behavior of colloidal particles with a hard core and a soft shell has attracted the attention for researchers in the physical-chemistry interface not only due the large number of applications, but due the unique properties of these…
We explore interactions between equally charged surfaces, in the presence of simple salt and either neutral or monovalently charged polyampholytes. We consider the possibility of using these charged polymers as crude models of ion clusters.…
We show that the formation of a gel by conducting colloidal particles leads to a dramatic enhancement in bulk conductivity, due to inter-particle electron tunneling, combining predictions from molecular dynamics simulations with structural…
The non-equilibrium distribution of colloids in a polymer solution under a temperature gradient is studied experimentally. A slight increase of local temperature by a focused laser drives the colloids towards the hot region, resulting in…