Nonlinear effects in the stability of highly charged colloidal suspensions.
We investigate the nonlinear effects related to the formation of particle-counterion clusters in highly charged asymmetric colloidal suspensions. The ocurrence of such clustering is experimentally probed by studying the stability of the colloidal system. The results demonstrate that a renormalized charge is needed in order to explain the observed critical coagulation concentrations. This renormalization is predicted by an extension of the Debye-Hückel-Bjerrum liquid state theory [A. Diehl, M. C. Barbosa, and Y. Levin, Europhys. Lett. 53, 86 (2001)]. Therefore, counterion condensation seems to become apparent in particle aggregation processes through control of the repulsive barrier that keeps the system stable. As a consequence of the agreement, new insights into the microscopic state of highly charged complex fluids follow.
Fernández-Nieves
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Group of Complex Fluids Physics, Department of Applied Physics, University of Almería, 04120 Almería, Spain. fjnieves@ual.es
Fernández-Barbero
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de las Nieves
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