Colloids And The Depletion Interaction

Colloids and the Depletion Interaction

This open access book provides a detailed exploration of the phase behaviour of, and interfacial properties in, complex colloidal mixtures (e.g., clay, milk, blood). Insights into colloids have been at the heart of many innovations in different industries. The big question underlying these innovations is how can colloidal systems be formulated and designed towards the desired properties? To do this, the forces between the colloidal particles need to be controlled. Adding depletants (non-adsorbing polymers or small colloids) is key to controlling the attractive interactions. Colloids and the Depletion Interaction provides the qualitative insights and quantitative tools to understand and predict such forces in colloidal dispersions. It offers a concise introduction to the history and fundamentals of the depletion interaction in, and phase behaviour of, colloidal dispersions. Why does adding polymers lead to attractive forces between colloidal particles? What determines the phase stability of multi-component colloidal systems? These include colloid—polymer mixtures, binary colloidal mixtures, and anisotropic particles such as clay platelets, cubes and rod-like viruses. Conceptual explanations are accompanied by experimental and computer simulation results throughout. Illustrations of depletion effects in colloid science, biology and technology demonstrate its wider significance. The concluding outlook provides the scope of challenges and possibilities in this exciting field of science. This second updated and enlarged edition contains 12 Chapters. It is an ideal book for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in physical chemistry, chemical engineering and soft matter physics. Besides providing a fundamental understanding of depletion interactions in colloidal mixtures, it gives background information on colloidal stability and phase behaviour in general. For experienced scientists and engineers working on mixtures of colloids and non-adsorbing (bio)polymers or colloidal particles, this book serves as a reference for understanding depletion interactions in systems of their specific interest.

Colloids and the Depletion Interaction

Colloids are submicron particles that are ubiquitous in nature (milk, clay, blood) and industrial products (paints, drilling fluids, food). In recent decades it has become clear that adding depletants such as polymers or small colloids to colloidal dispersions allows one to tune the interactions between the colloids and in this way control the stability, structure and rheological properties of colloidal dispersions. This book offers a concise introduction to the fundamentals of depletion effects and their influence on the phase behavior of colloidal dispersions. Throughout the book, conceptual explanations are accompanied by experimental and computer simulation results. From the review by Kurt Binder: "They have succeeded in writing a monograph that is a very well balanced compromise between a very pedagogic introduction, suitable for students and other newcomers, and reviews of the advanced research trends in the field. Thus each chapter contains many and up to date references, but in the initial sections of the chapters, there are suggested exercises which will help the interested reader to recapitulate the main points of the treatment and to deepen his understanding of the subject. Only elementary knowledge of statistical thermodynamics is needed as a background for understanding the derivations presented in this book; thus this text is suitable also for advanced teaching purposes, useful of courses which deal with the physics for soft condensed matter. There does not yet exist any other book with a similar scope..... The readability of this book is furthermore enhanced by a list of symbols, and index of keywords, and last not least by a large number of figures, including many pedagogic sketches which were specifically prepared for this book. Thus, this book promises to be very useful for students and related applied sciences alike." Eur. Phys. J. E (2015) 38: 73

Influence of a Shear Flow on Colloidal Depletion Interaction