1999/09/15 by Patrick B. Warren, Warren, Patrick B. · 2 citations
Chemistry · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions #FOS: Physical sciences #Material Dynamics and Properties #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/9909235
30 pages, 9 figures; discussion points expanded, extra references added
openalex publication_date 1999/09/15 · arxiv created 1999/11/30 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Using a carefully justified development of Debye-Huckel theory for highly asymmetric electrolytes, one finds that a region of expanded phase instability, or miscibility gap, can appear for charge-stabilised colloidal suspensions at high charges and low ionic strengths. It is argued that this is offers a straightforward explanation for the observations of void structures and other anomalies in such suspensions in this region. The nature of the interface between coexisting phases, and general arguments that many-body attractions form a key part of the underlying physical picture, are also examined. The present analysis may also generate new insights into old problems such as coacervation in oppositely charged colloid or protein / polyelectrolyte mixtures, and suggests interesting new possibilities such as the appearance of charge density wave phases in colloidal systems in the vicinity of the critical solution points.