Computer simulations of confined colloidal systems at the air/water interface Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • We present Monte Carlo simulations in the NVT ensemble for spherical particles of diameter a interacting via a hard-core potential with a squareshoulder (SS) repulsive barrier, a square-well (SW) attraction, and a second SS repulsion. This discrete potential is used to mimic the pair interaction in confined colloidal systems at the air/water interface. The SW attraction represents a secondary minimum for large interparticle distances, and the SS repulsion is a shallow secondary maximum after the secondary minimum. The effect of the SS range λrσ is studied for the cases λr = 0, 6, and 7. The simulation results for the last two cases indicate the important role of the presence of the secondary maximum in the interaction potential, since they are able to reproduce the main features observed in colloidal particles trapped at the air/water interface, such as clustering, chain formation, foams, and the presence of voids.

publication date

  • 2002-01-01