Depletion forces between nonspherical objects.
We extend the insertion approach for calculating depletion potentials to the case of nonspherical solutes. We suggest to employ the recently developed curvature expansion of density profiles close to complexly shaped walls. The approximations introduced in the calculation by the use of the curvature expansion and of weight functions for nonspherical objects can be tested independently. As an application for our approach we calculate and discuss the depletion potential between two hard oblate ellipsoids in a solvent of hard spheres. For this system we calculate the entropic force and torque acting on the objects.
König
P-M
PM
Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 3, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
Roth
R
R
Dietrich
S
S