Related papers: Fluid-fluid demixing transitions in colloid--polye…
An analytic derivation of the spinodal of a polydisperse mixture is presented. It holds for fluids whose excess free energy can be accurately described by a function of a few moments of the size distribution. It is shown that one such…
The depletion potential between two hard spheres in a solvent of thin hard disclike platelets is investigated by using either the Derjaguin approximation or density functional theory. Particular attention is paid to the density dependence…
We consider binary mixtures of soft repulsive spherical particles and calculate the depletion interaction between two big spheres mediated by the fluid of small spheres, using different theoretical and simulation methods. The validity of…
We report that binary dispersions of like-charged colloidal particles with large charge asymmetry but similar size exhibit phase separation into crystal and fluid phases under very low salt conditions. This is unexpected because the…
Phase transformations can be difficult to characterize at the microscopic level due to the inability to directly observe individual atomic motions. Model colloidal systems, by contrast, permit the direct observation of individual particle…
Effective electrostatic interactions between colloidal particles, coated with polyelectrolyte brushes and suspended in an electrolyte solvent, are described via linear response theory. The inner cores of the macroions are modeled as hard…
A binary colloidal mixture of unequal sizes, subjected to an external potential barrier, has been investigated using canonical ensemble molecular dynamics simulations. The attractive depletion interaction between the external barrier and…
We studied the phase behavior of charged and sterically stabilized colloids using confocal microscopy in a less polar solvent (dielectric constant 5.4). Upon increasing the colloid volume fraction we found a transition from a fluid to a…
PEP-PEO block copolymer micelles offer the possibility to investigate phase behaviour and interactions of star polymers (ultra-soft colloids). A star-like architecture is achieved by an extremely asymmetric block ratio (1:20). Micellar…
Electrostatic interactions between point charges embedded into interfaces separating dielectric media are omnipresent in soft matter systems and often control their stability. Such interactions are typically complicated and do not resemble…
Many cell functions require a concerted effort from multiple membrane proteins, for example, for signaling, cell division, and endocytosis. One contribution to their successful self-organization stems from the membrane deformations that…
In this article, we demonstrate a method for inducing reversible crystal-to-crystal transitions in binary mixtures of soft colloidal particles. Through a controlled decrease of salinity and increasingly dominating electrostatic…
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…
Within a general theoretical framework we study the effective, deformation-induced interaction between two colloidal particles trapped at a fluid interface in the regime of small deformations. In many studies, this interaction has been…
We systematically studied the validity and transferability of effective, coarse-grained, pair potentials in ultrasoft colloidal systems. We focused on amphiphilic dendrimers, macromolecules which can aggregate into clusters of overlapping…
Star-like microgels have recently emerged as a promising class of thermoresponsive soft colloids, that have an internal architecture similar to that of star polymers. Here, we perform extensive monomer-resolved simulations to theoretically…
The distance-resolved effective interaction between two star polymers in a good solvent is calculated by Molecular Dynamics computer simulations. The results are compared with a pair potential proposed recently by Likos et al. [Phys. Rev.…
The adsorption of highly \textit{oppositely} charged flexible polyelectrolytes onto a charged spherical surface is investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations in a fashion which resembles the layer-by-layer deposition technique…
The effective interaction between charged colloidal particles confined between two planar like-charged walls is investigated using computer simulations of the primitive model describing asymmetric electrolytes. In detail, we calculate the…
An effective pair potential for systems of uniformly charged lamellar colloids in the presence of an electrolytic solution of microscopic co- and counterions is derived. The charge distribution on the discs is expressed as a collection of…