Multipolar expansion of the electrostatic interaction between charged colloids at interfaces

Abstract

The general form of the electrostatic potential around an arbitrarily charged colloid at an interface between a dielectric and a screening phase (such as air and water, respectively) is analyzed in terms of a multipole expansion. The leading term is isotropic in the interfacial plane and varies with $d^{-3}$ where $d$ is the in--plane distance from the colloid. The electrostatic interaction potential between two arbitrarily charged colloids is likewise isotropic and $\propto d^{-3}$, corresponding to the dipole--dipole interaction first found for point charges at water interfaces. Anisotropic interaction terms arise only for higher powers $d^{-n}$ with $n\ge 4$.

6 pages, mathematical details added

References in corpus (2)

• Effective capillary interaction of spherical particles at fluid interfaces
• Charge renormalization for effective interactions of colloids at water interfaces