title: Diffusion of spherical particles in microcavities.
abstract: The diffusive motion of a colloidal particle trapped inside a small cavity filled with fluid is reduced by hydrodynamic interactions with the confining walls. In this work, we study these wall effects on a spherical particle entrapped in a closed cylinder. We calculate the diffusion coefficient along the radial, azimuthal, and axial direction for different particle positions. At all locations the diffusion is smaller than in a bulk fluid and it becomes anisotropic near the container's walls. We present a simple model which reasonably well describes the simulation results for the given dimensions of the cylinder, which are taken from the recent experimental work.
authors.affiliation: Computational Biophysics, University of Twente, Enschede 7500 AE, The Netherlands. a.imperio@virgilio.it
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Imperio
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Padding
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Briels
mesh_terms: D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D004058:Diffusion; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008958:Models, Molecular; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids; D012997:Solvents