Energetic contributions to wall-particle depletion forces.
Recently, depletion forces were accounted for by a contraction of the description based on the integral equations theory of simple liquids [Phys. Rev. E 61, 4095 (2000)]. The extension of those results to the case of inhomogeneous systems is reported here. Besides, the energetic contributions to the wall-particle depletion forces are studied, as they arise as soon as charge is put on some of the components of a binary mixture of hard spheres on the front of a hard wall. By charging the small particles the amplitude of the depletion attraction between wall and large particles is reduced, and can even become a repulsion. A similar effect is observed if an attractive interaction between wall and small particles is present.
González-Mozuelos
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Departamento de Física, CINVESTAV-IPN, Avenida IPN 2508, Col. San Pedro Zacatenco, 07300 México, D.F., Mexico.
Méndez-Alcaraz
J M
JM