Related papers: Structure of Colloid-Polymer Suspensions
We consider anisotropic colloidal particles immersed in a solution of long, flexible, and nonadsorbing polymers. For the dumbbell shapes of recently synthesized particles consisting of two intersecting spheres and for lens-shaped particles…
We report molecular dynamics simulations of a system of repulsive, polymer-tethered colloidal particles. We use an explicit polymer model to explore how the length and the behavior of the polymer (ideal or self-avoiding) affect the ability…
The correlations between the segments of a semidilute polymer solution are found to induce correlations in the positions of small particles added to the solution. Small means a diameter much less than the polymer's correlation length. In…
We have studied the competition between helix formation and aggregation for a simple polymer model. We present simulation results for a system of two such polymers, examining the potential of mean force, the balance between inter and…
We use thermodynamic perturbation theory to calculate the free energies and resulting phase diagrams of binary systems of spherical colloidal particles and interacting polymer coils in good solvent within an effective one-component…
We study the phase behaviour of a binary mixture of colloidal hard spheres and freely-jointed chains of beads using Monte Carlo simulations. Recently Panagiotopoulos and coworkers predicted [Nat. Commun. 5, 4472 (2014)] that the hexagonal…
The depletion interactions between two colloidal plates or between two colloidal spheres, induced by interacting polymers in a good solvent, are calculated theoretically and by computer simulations. A simple analytical theory is shown to be…
Block copolymer melts self-assemble in the bulk into a variety of nanostructures, making them perfect candidates to template the position of nanoparticles. The morphological changes of block copolymers are studied in the presence of a…
Using a theoretical model we show that ideal ring polymers are stronger depletants than ideal linear polymers of equal radii of gyration, but not of equal hydrodynamic radii. The difference in the depletion-induced force profile is largely…
Structural correlations between colloids in a binary mixture of charged and uncharged spheres are calculated using computer simulations of the primitive model with explicit microions. For aqueous suspensions in a solvent of large dielectric…
Colloid-polymer mixtures may undergo either fluid-fluid phase separation or gelation. This depends on the depth of the quench (polymer concentration) and polymer-colloid size ratio. We present a real-space study of dynamics in phase…
We study experimentally what is arguably the simplest yet non-trivial colloidal system: two-dimensional clusters of 6 spherical particles bound by depletion interactions. These clusters have multiple, degenerate ground states whose…
The depletion theory of nanoparticles immersed in a semidilute polymer solution is reinterpreted in terms of depleted chains of polymer segments. Limitations and extensions of mean-field theory are discussed. An explicit expression for the…
Interfacial properties of colloid--polymer mixtures are examined within an effective one--component representation, where the polymer degrees of freedom are traced out, leaving a fluid of colloidal particles interacting via polymer--induced…
A system of two self and mutual interacting ring polymers, close together in space, can display several competing equilibrium phases and phase transitions. Using Monte Carlo simulations and combinatorial arguments on a corresponding lattice…
Solutions of semiflexible polymers confined by repulsive planar walls are studied by density functional theory and Molecular Dynamics simulations, to clarify the competition between the chain alignment favored by the wall and the depletion…
We calculate the second and third virial coefficients of the effective sphere-sphere interaction due to polymer depletion. By utilizing the anisotropy of a typical polymer conformation, we can consider polymers that are roughly the same…
The dynamics of polymer-nanoparticle (NP) mixtures, which involves multiple scales and system-specific variables, has posed a long-standing challenge on its theoretical description. In this paper, we construct a microscopic theory for…
We report on the formation of colloidal complexes resulting from the electrostatic self-assembly of polyelectrolyte-neutral block copolymers and oppositely charged surfactants. The copolymers investigated are asymmetric and characterized by…
The equilibrium phase behavior of a binary mixture of charged colloids and neutral, non-adsorbing polymers is studied within free-volume theory. A model mixture of charged hard-sphere macroions and ideal, coarse-grained, effective-sphere…