Related papers: Effective interactions and phase behaviour for a m…
While the important role of electrostatic interactions in aqueous colloidal suspensions is widely known and reasonably well-understood, the relevance of charge in nonpolar suspensions remains mysterious. We demonstrate that particles can…
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 explore the microstructure and phase behavior of confined soft colloids which can actively switch their interactions at a predefined kinetic rate. For this, we employ a reaction-diffusion approach based on a reactive dynamical…
Liquid crystalline media mediate interactions between suspended particles and confining geometries, which not only has potential to guide patterning and bottom-up colloidal assembly, but can also control colloidal migration in microfluidic…
We study the phase ordering dynamics of a two dimensional model colloidal solid using molecular dynamics simulations. The colloid particles interact with each other with a Hamaker potential modified by the presence of equatorial "patches"…
We demonstrate a variety of ordered patterns, including hexagonal structures and chains, formed by colloidal particles (droplets) at the free surface of a nematic liquid crystal (LC). The surface placement introduces a new type of particle…
Colloidal particles dispersed in a partially ordered medium, such as a liquid crystal (LC) phase, disturb its alignment and are subject to elastic forces. These forces are long-ranged, anisotropic and tunable through temperature or external…
We study the ionic equilibria and interactions of neutral semi-permeable spherical shells immersed in electrolyte solutions, including polyions. Although the shells are uncharged, only one type of ions of the electrolyte can permeate them,…
The phase behavior of a model suspension of colloidal polydisperse platelets is studied using density-functional theory. Platelets are modelled as parallel rectangular prisms of square section $l$ and height $h$, with length and height…
We apply extensive Molecular Dynamics simulations and analytical considerations in order to study the conformations and the effective interactions between weakly charged, flexible polyelectrolyte chains in salt-free conditions. We focus on…
Anisotropic fluids appear in a diverse array of systems, from liquid-crystal displays to bacterial swarms, and are characterized by orientational order. Large colloidal particles immersed in such environments disturb the medium's…
The existence of attractions between like-charged colloids immersed in ionic solution have been discovered in recent experiments. This phenomenon contradicts the predictions of DLVO theory and indicates a failure of mean field theory. We…
Thermally or chemically active colloids generate thermodynamic gradients in the solution in which they are immersed and thereby induce hydrodynamic flows that affect their dynamical evolution. Here we study a mean-field model for the…
The electrostatic interaction between two non-identical, moderately charged colloids situated in close proximity of each other at a fluid interface is studied. By resorting to a well-justified model system, this problem is analytically…
This contribution briefly reviews some recent work demonstrating the partial breakdown of the colloidal fluid <--> atomic fluid analogy. The success of liquid state theory for atomic fluids stems in part from the van der Waals picture,…
We study indented spherical colloids, interacting via depletion forces. These systems exhibit liquid-vapor phase transitions whose properties are determined by a combination of strong "lock-and-key" bonds and weaker non-specific…
The aging dynamics of colloidal suspensions of Laponite, a synthetic clay, is investigated using dynamic light stattering (DLS) and viscometry after a quench into the glassy phase. DLS allows to follow the diffusion of Laponite particles…
We discuss theoretically, using density-functional theory, the phase stability of nematic and smectic ordering in a suspension of platelets of the same thickness but with a high polydispersity in diameter, and study the influence of…
Soft materials, such as colloidal suspensions, polymer solutions, and biological systems, are typically multicomponent mixtures of macromolecules and simpler components (e.g., microions, monomers, solvent) that can assemble into complex…
We study the phase behavior of hard spheres confined between two parallel hard plates using extensive computer simulations. We determine the full equilibrium phase diagram for arbitrary densities and plate separations from one to five…