Demixed phases of colloid plus polymer systems in a common solvent Calculation of the interfacial tension

✍ Scribed by A. Vrij

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 347 KB
• Volume: 235
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0378-4371
• DOI: 10.1016/s0378-4371(96)00333-0

✦ Synopsis

An analytical formula for the interfacial tension of the (sharp) interface in a demixed (complex) system of colloid and polymer has been derived, The colloid and polymer are modelled as hard spheres and overlapping spheres, respectively. The treatment is based on a recent theory of Kalikmanov and Hofmans, in which the pair potential is modelled as a depletion potential.

For example, a hard sphere with a diameter of 10 nm gives an interfacial tension between, say, 0.015 and 0.055 mN/m (=dyne/cm) depending on the concentration and the size of the polymer.