Effect of polymer-polymer interactions on the surface tension of colloid-polymer mixtures

Abstract

The density profile and surface tension for the interface of phase-separated colloid-polymer mixtures have been studied in the framework of the square gradient approximation for both ideal and interacting polymers in good solvent. The calculations show that in the presence of polymer-polymer excluded volume interactions the interfaces have lower widths and surface tensions compared to the case of ideal polymers. These results are a direct consequence of the shorter range and smaller depth of the depletion potential between colloidal particles induced by interacting polymers.

arXiv comment12 pages, 5 figures, accepted for J. Chem. Phys

References in corpus (6)

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• Scaling theory for the free-energy barrier to homogeneous nucleation of a non-critical phase near a critical point
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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Mixtures of Charged Colloid and Neutral Polymer: Influence of Electrostatic Interactions on Demixing and Interfacial Tension
• Demixing in athermal mixtures of colloids and excluded-volume polymers from a density functional theory
• Effect of excluded volume interactions on the interfacial properties of colloid-polymer mixtures
• Simulation and theory of fluid demixing and interfacial tension of mixtures of colloids and non-ideal polymers
• Accurate description of bulk and interfacial properties in colloid-polymer mixtures
• Crowding of Polymer Coils and Demixing in Nanoparticle-Polymer Mixtures
• A density--functional study of interfacial properties of colloid--polymer mixtures
• Equilibrium properties of highly asymmetric star-polymer mixtures