The Influence of Collective Interactions Between Colloidal Particles on Colloidal Stability

波多黎各皮埃德拉斯大学的Lutful Buiyan教授得到了理论和计算化学方案的资助，继续他关于胶体颗粒之间的集体相互作用对胶体稳定性的影响的理论研究。改进的泊松-玻尔兹曼(MPB)理论将被用来研究胶体溶液中所有带电物种的集体效应对两个胶体粒子相互作用的重要性。这项研究的四个具体目标是：1)使MPB方程适用于一个或多个物种是胶体粒子的情况，以便在平等的基础上处理所有相互作用；2)研究胶体粒子之间的相互作用对胶体粒子和简单离子的浓度、尺寸和电荷的影响；3)确定与溶剂分子的空间相互作用对胶体-胶体相互作用的影响；以及4)考虑进一步发展MPB方法。对于高度相互作用的胶体分散体系中颗粒间作用力的本质，目前还不存在基本的认识。目前还不清楚是什么阻止分散在水中的带电胶体颗粒凝结。由于其特殊的物理性质，胶体材料已经在工业上得到了广泛的应用，并可能在未来有重要的设备应用。为了设计出具有所需性质的材料，有必要了解溶液中这些带电粒子之间强相互作用的详细原子水平描述。布依扬的研究针对的是解释这些特性的基本理论。

Professor Lutful Bhuiyan, University of Puerto Rico Piedras, is supported by a grant from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program to continue his theoretical research on the influence of collective interactions between colloidal particles on colloidal stability. Modified Poisson-Boltzmann (MPB) theory will be used to investigate the importance of collective effects of all the charged species of a colloidal solution on the interaction between two colloidal particles. Four specific goals of the research are: 1) to adapt the MPB equation to the situation where one or more of the species is the colloidal particle so all interactions are treated on an equal footing; 2) to study the interaction between colloidal particles on concentration, size, and charge of both the colloidal particle and the simple ions; 3) determine the effect of steric interaction with solvent molecules on colloid-colloid interactions; and 4) to consider further development of the MPB approach. A fundamental understanding of the nature of interparticle forces in highly interacting colloidal dispersions does not as yet exist. It is still not well understood what keeps charged colloidal particles dispersed in water from coagulating. Because of their unusual physical properties colloidal materials have found widespread industrial use, and may in the future have important device applications. In order to design materials with desired properties, it is necessary to understand the detailed atomic level description of the strong interactions between these charged particles in solution. Bhuiyan's research is directed at a basic theory to explain these properties.