Depletion potentials near geometrically structured substrates

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2003 EDP Sciences
, , Citation P. Bryk et al 2003 EPL 63 233 DOI 10.1209/epl/i2003-00517-6

0295-5075/63/2/233

Abstract

Using the recently developed so-called White Bear version of Rosenfeld's Fundamental Measure Theory we calculate the depletion potentials between a hard-sphere colloidal particle in a solvent of small hard spheres and simple models of geometrically structured substrates: a right-angled wedge or edge. In the wedge geometry, there is a strong attraction beyond the corresponding one near a planar wall that significantly influences the structure of colloidal suspensions in wedges. In accordance with an experimental study, for the edge geometry we find a free-energy barrier of the order of several kBT which repels a big colloidal particle from the edge.

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10.1209/epl/i2003-00517-6