https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2005-10028-4
Original Article
Depletion from a hard wall induced by aggregation and gelation
Polymères Colloïdes Interfaces, UMR6120 CNRS, Université du Maine, F-72085, Le Mans, France
* e-mail: taco.nicolai@univ-lemans.fr
** e-mail: jean-christophe.gimel@univ-lemans.fr
Received:
30
March
2005
Accepted:
12
July
2005
Published online:
9
September
2005
Diffusion-limited cluster aggregation and gelation of hard spheres is simulated using off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations. A comparison is made of the wall-particle correlation function with the particle-particle correlation function over a range of volume fractions, both for the initial system of randomly distributed spheres and for the final gel state. For randomly distributed spheres the correlation functions are compared with theoretical results using the Ornstein-Zernike equation and the Percus-Yevick closure. At high volume fractions (φ > 40%) gelation has little influence on the correlation function, but for φ < 10% it is a universal function of the distance normalized by correlation length (ξ) of the bulk. The width of the depletion layer is about 0.5ξ. The concentration increases as a power law from the wall up to r ≈ ξ, where it reaches a weak maximum before decreasing to the bulk value.
PACS: 05.10.Ln Monte Carlo methods – / 82.70.Dd Colloids – / 82.70.Gg Gels and sols –
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2005