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Many-body effects in a binary nano-particle mixture dispersed in ideal polymer solutions

Nguyen, Huy S. ; Forsman, Jan LU and Woodward, Clifford E. (2019) In Journal of Chemical Physics 150(4).
Abstract

A new mean-field theory is developed to treat a binary mixture of nanoparticles imbedded in a polydisperse polymer solution. The theory is based on a many-body polymer-mediated potential of mean force (PMF) between the particles and remains accurate even in the protein regime, where the particles' diameters cannot necessarily be considered large compared to the polymer radius of gyration. As implemented here, the theory is strictly valid for dilute to semi-dilute polymer solutions near the theta temperature (the so-called theta regime) or when the range of the PMF is strongly affected by the polymer size. For non-adsorbing particles, this is the same regime where the celebrated Asakura-Oosawa (AO) model is often used. Unlike the... (More)

A new mean-field theory is developed to treat a binary mixture of nanoparticles imbedded in a polydisperse polymer solution. The theory is based on a many-body polymer-mediated potential of mean force (PMF) between the particles and remains accurate even in the protein regime, where the particles' diameters cannot necessarily be considered large compared to the polymer radius of gyration. As implemented here, the theory is strictly valid for dilute to semi-dilute polymer solutions near the theta temperature (the so-called theta regime) or when the range of the PMF is strongly affected by the polymer size. For non-adsorbing particles, this is the same regime where the celebrated Asakura-Oosawa (AO) model is often used. Unlike the traditional AO model, however, our approach includes polymer flexibility and is accurate in the protein regime. We use the theory to calculate phase diagrams for a binary mixture of unequal-sized particles, both adsorbing and non-adsorbing. To test the theory, we carry out comparisons with simulations and obtained good quantitative agreement, which gives support to its accuracy. On the other hand, the oft-used approach assuming pairwise-additive potentials of mean force produce quantitatively (and sometime qualitatively) different phase diagrams.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Journal of Chemical Physics
volume
150
issue
4
article number
044906
publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
external identifiers
  • scopus:85060954713
  • pmid:30709318
ISSN
0021-9606
DOI
10.1063/1.5051775
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d25b9d16-5acf-44ed-8a71-944e3cd0f235
date added to LUP
2019-02-12 09:41:09
date last changed
2024-04-30 01:05:42
@article{d25b9d16-5acf-44ed-8a71-944e3cd0f235,
  abstract     = {{<p>A new mean-field theory is developed to treat a binary mixture of nanoparticles imbedded in a polydisperse polymer solution. The theory is based on a many-body polymer-mediated potential of mean force (PMF) between the particles and remains accurate even in the protein regime, where the particles' diameters cannot necessarily be considered large compared to the polymer radius of gyration. As implemented here, the theory is strictly valid for dilute to semi-dilute polymer solutions near the theta temperature (the so-called theta regime) or when the range of the PMF is strongly affected by the polymer size. For non-adsorbing particles, this is the same regime where the celebrated Asakura-Oosawa (AO) model is often used. Unlike the traditional AO model, however, our approach includes polymer flexibility and is accurate in the protein regime. We use the theory to calculate phase diagrams for a binary mixture of unequal-sized particles, both adsorbing and non-adsorbing. To test the theory, we carry out comparisons with simulations and obtained good quantitative agreement, which gives support to its accuracy. On the other hand, the oft-used approach assuming pairwise-additive potentials of mean force produce quantitatively (and sometime qualitatively) different phase diagrams.</p>}},
  author       = {{Nguyen, Huy S. and Forsman, Jan and Woodward, Clifford E.}},
  issn         = {{0021-9606}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  publisher    = {{American Institute of Physics (AIP)}},
  series       = {{Journal of Chemical Physics}},
  title        = {{Many-body effects in a binary nano-particle mixture dispersed in ideal polymer solutions}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5051775}},
  doi          = {{10.1063/1.5051775}},
  volume       = {{150}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}