title: Pair potential of charged colloidal stars.
abstract: We report on the construction of colloidal stars: 1 microm polystyrene beads grafted with a dense brush of 1 microm long and 10 nm wide charged semiflexible filamentous viruses. The pair interaction potentials of colloidal stars are measured using an experimental implementation of umbrella sampling, a technique originally developed in computer simulations in order to probe rare events. The influence of ionic strength and grafting density on the interaction is measured. Good agreements are found between the measured interactions and theoretical predictions based upon the osmotic pressure of counterions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454, USA.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Addas
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: N T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Flynn
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Velasco
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Hagan
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dogic
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fraden
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D017104:Bacteriophage M13 / Q000737:chemistry*; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D003102:Colloids / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005453:Fluorescence; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D009994:Osmolar Concentration; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D003102:Colloids; D011137:Polystyrenes; D006046:Gold