Colloids, polymers, and needles: Demixing phase behavior

Abstract

We consider a ternary mixture of hard colloidal spheres, ideal polymer spheres, and rigid vanishingly thin needles, which model stretched polymers or colloidal rods. For this model we develop a geometry-based density functional theory, apply it to bulk fluid phases, and predict demixing phase behavior. In the case of no polymer-needle interactions, two-phase coexistence between colloid-rich and -poor phases is found. For hard needle-polymer interactions we predict rich phase diagrams, exhibiting three-phase coexistence, and reentrant demixing behavior.

9 pages, 15 figures

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