Microscopic theory of solvent-mediated long-range forces: Influence of wetting

2002/05/23 by A. J. Archer, A. J Archer, R. Evans +3 · 4 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Physical and Chemical Molecular Interactions #Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #cond-mat.soft

paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/epl/i2002-00137-2

published as Europhys. Lett., 59 (4), pp. 526-532 (2002) · 7 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Europhysics Letters

arxiv created 2002/05/23 · openalex publication_date 2002/08/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

We show that a general density functional approach for calculating the force between two big particles immersed in a solvent of smaller ones can describe systems that exhibit fluid-fluid phase separation: the theory captures effects of strong adsorption (wetting) and of critical fluctuations in the solvent. We illustrate the approach for the Gaussian core model, a simple model of a polymer mixture in solution and find extremely attractive, long-ranged solvent-mediated potentials between the big particles for state points lying close to the binodal, on the side where the solvent is poor in the species which is favoured by the big particles.

Citations

• The Statistical Thermodynamics of Multicomponent Systems
• The nature of the liquid-vapour interface and other topics in the statistical mechanics of non-uniform, classical fluids
• Depletion potential in hard-sphere mixtures: theory and applications

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