title: Increasing entropy for colloidal stabilization.
abstract: Stability is of paramount importance in colloidal applications. Attraction between colloidal particles is believed to lead to particle aggregation and phase separation; hence, stability improvement can be achieved through either increasing repulsion or reducing attraction by modifying the fluid medium or by using additives. Two traditional mechanisms for colloidal stability are electrostatic stabilization and steric stabilization. However, stability improvement by mixing attractive and unstable particles has rarely been considered. Here, we emphasize the function of mixing entropy in colloidal stabilization. Dispersion stability improvement is demonstrated by mixing suspensions of attractive nanosized titania spheres and platelets. A three-dimensional phase diagram is proposed to illustrate the collaborative effects of particle mixing and particle attraction on colloidal stability. This discovery provides a novel method for enhancing colloidal stability and opens a novel opportunity for engineering applications.
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory on Functional Soft Condensed Matter, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.|Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A &M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3122, USA.
authors.forename: Songping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory on Functional Soft Condensed Matter, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
authors.forename: Xuefeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory on Functional Soft Condensed Matter, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory on Functional Soft Condensed Matter, School of Materials and Energy, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.|Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A &M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3122, USA.
authors.forename: Zhengdong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cheng