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Non-monotonic phase behaviour of a mixture containing non-adsorbing particles and polymerising rod-like molecules

Thiyam, Priyadarshini LU ; Woodward, Clifford E. and Forsman, Jan LU (2020) In Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 568. p.25-35
Abstract

Hypothesis: Previous works have shown that many-body interactions induced by dispersants with increasing correlation length will generate a diminishing two-phase region [Soft Matter 14, 6921 (2018)]. We conjecture that the attenuation of the depletion attraction due to many-body interactions is a ubiquitous phenomenon in medium-induced interactions. We propose mixtures of colloidal particles and rod-like polymers as a feasible experimental system for verifying these predictions, since the intra-molecular correlations are not screened in a good solvent for rod-like polymers as they are in flexible polymers. The length of the rods can grow and become the dominant length scale that determines the range of the depletion interactions for the... (More)

Hypothesis: Previous works have shown that many-body interactions induced by dispersants with increasing correlation length will generate a diminishing two-phase region [Soft Matter 14, 6921 (2018)]. We conjecture that the attenuation of the depletion attraction due to many-body interactions is a ubiquitous phenomenon in medium-induced interactions. We propose mixtures of colloidal particles and rod-like polymers as a feasible experimental system for verifying these predictions, since the intra-molecular correlations are not screened in a good solvent for rod-like polymers as they are in flexible polymers. The length of the rods can grow and become the dominant length scale that determines the range of the depletion interactions for the imbedded non-adsorbing particles. Simulations: We study many-body depletion forces induced by polymerizing rod-like polymers on spherical non-adsorbing colloids, using Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations. We also employ a simple mean-field theory to further justify our numerical predictions. Findings: We demonstrate that the phase diagram displays the same qualitative features that have previously been predicted by many-body theory, for mixtures containing flexible polymers under theta solvent conditions. The contraction of the particle two-phase region that we observe, as the correlation length increases beyond some specific value, could be a signature of the weakening of the depletion caused by many-body effects.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Depletion interaction, Many-body effects, Particle-rod mixture
in
Journal of Colloid and Interface Science
volume
568
pages
11 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • pmid:32078936
  • scopus:85079367440
ISSN
0021-9797
DOI
10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.020
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
00bcf429-73c9-46c5-9629-2330e367d654
date added to LUP
2020-02-26 15:33:58
date last changed
2024-04-03 03:43:05
@article{00bcf429-73c9-46c5-9629-2330e367d654,
  abstract     = {{<p>Hypothesis: Previous works have shown that many-body interactions induced by dispersants with increasing correlation length will generate a diminishing two-phase region [Soft Matter 14, 6921 (2018)]. We conjecture that the attenuation of the depletion attraction due to many-body interactions is a ubiquitous phenomenon in medium-induced interactions. We propose mixtures of colloidal particles and rod-like polymers as a feasible experimental system for verifying these predictions, since the intra-molecular correlations are not screened in a good solvent for rod-like polymers as they are in flexible polymers. The length of the rods can grow and become the dominant length scale that determines the range of the depletion interactions for the imbedded non-adsorbing particles. Simulations: We study many-body depletion forces induced by polymerizing rod-like polymers on spherical non-adsorbing colloids, using Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations. We also employ a simple mean-field theory to further justify our numerical predictions. Findings: We demonstrate that the phase diagram displays the same qualitative features that have previously been predicted by many-body theory, for mixtures containing flexible polymers under theta solvent conditions. The contraction of the particle two-phase region that we observe, as the correlation length increases beyond some specific value, could be a signature of the weakening of the depletion caused by many-body effects.</p>}},
  author       = {{Thiyam, Priyadarshini and Woodward, Clifford E. and Forsman, Jan}},
  issn         = {{0021-9797}},
  keywords     = {{Depletion interaction; Many-body effects; Particle-rod mixture}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  pages        = {{25--35}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Colloid and Interface Science}},
  title        = {{Non-monotonic phase behaviour of a mixture containing non-adsorbing particles and polymerising rod-like molecules}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/78303835/manuscript.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.020}},
  volume       = {{568}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}