Polymeric Stabilization Of Colloidal Dispersions

This book covers the physical side of colloidal science from the individual forces acting between particles smaller than a micrometer that are suspended in a liquid, through the resulting equilibrium and dynamic properties. A variety of internal forces both attractive and repulsive act in conjunction with Brownian motion and the balance between them all decides the phase behaviour. On top of this various external fields, such as gravity or electromagnetic fields, diffusion and non-Newtonian rheology produce complex effects, each of which is of important scientific and technological interest. The authors aim to impart a sound, quantitative understanding based on fundamental theory and experiments with well-characterised model systems. This broad grasp of the fundamentals lends insight and helps to develop the intuitive sense needed to isolate essential features of the technological problems and design critical experiments. The main prerequisites for understanding the book are basic fluid mechanics, statistical mechanics and electromagnetism, though self contained reviews of each subject are provided at appropriate points. Some facility with differential equations is also necessary. Exercises are included at the end of each chapter, making the work suitable as a textbook for graduate courses in chemical engineering or applied mathematics. It will also be useful as a reference for individuals in academia or industry undertaking research in colloid science.

Colloids are submicron particles that are ubiquitous in nature (milk, clay, blood) and industrial products (paints, drilling fluids, food). In recent decades it has become clear that adding depletants such as polymers or small colloids to colloidal dispersions allows one to tune the interactions between the colloids and in this way control the stability, structure and rheological properties of colloidal dispersions. This book offers a concise introduction to the fundamentals of depletion effects and their influence on the phase behavior of colloidal dispersions. Throughout the book, conceptual explanations are accompanied by experimental and computer simulation results. From the review by Kurt Binder: "They have succeeded in writing a monograph that is a very well balanced compromise between a very pedagogic introduction, suitable for students and other newcomers, and reviews of the advanced research trends in the field. Thus each chapter contains many and up to date references, but in the initial sections of the chapters, there are suggested exercises which will help the interested reader to recapitulate the main points of the treatment and to deepen his understanding of the subject. Only elementary knowledge of statistical thermodynamics is needed as a background for understanding the derivations presented in this book; thus this text is suitable also for advanced teaching purposes, useful of courses which deal with the physics for soft condensed matter. There does not yet exist any other book with a similar scope..... The readability of this book is furthermore enhanced by a list of symbols, and index of keywords, and last not least by a large number of figures, including many pedagogic sketches which were specifically prepared for this book. Thus, this book promises to be very useful for students and related applied sciences alike." Eur. Phys. J. E (2015) 38: 73

This book bridges three different fields: nanoscience, bioscience, and environmental sciences. It starts with fundamental electrostatics at interfaces and includes a detailed description of fundamental theories dealing with electrical double layers around a charged particle, electrokinetics, and electrical double layer interaction between charged particles. The stated fundamentals are provided as the underpinnings of sections two, three, and four, which address electrokinetic phenomena that occur in nanoscience, bioscience, and environmental science. Applications in nanomaterials, fuel cells, electronic materials, biomaterials, stems cells, microbiology, water purificiaion, and humic substances are discussed.

Stable colloidal dispersions with evenly distributed particles are important for many technological applications. Due to Brownian motion colloidal particles have constant collisions with each other which often lead to their aggregation driven by the long range van der Waals attraction. As a result the colloidal systems often tend to precipitate. A number of methods have been devised to minimize the effect of long-range van der Waals attraction between colloidal particles or to override the influence of the attraction in order to provide the colloidal stability.In the PhD thesis we investigated the colloidal stabilization in solutions of free polymers which is commonly referred to as depletion stabilization. Previous theoretical studies of free-polymer induced (FPI) stabilization were based on oversimplified models involving uncontrolled approximations. Even the most basic features of the depletion stabilization phenomenon were unknown. It was unclear how the PI repulsion depends on the solution parameters, polymer structure and monomer/surface interactions.The free polymer chains were modeled as random walks in a self-consistent molecular field that satisfied to diffusion-like integro-differential equation. As the molecular field we used the chemical potential that for semi-dilute polymer solution can be represented as a virial expansion where we took into account only second and third virial coefficients of the polymer solution. Varying the parameters like polymer stiffness, polymer length, polymer concentration and solvent regime (like theta solvent) whether it is for purely repulsive colloidal surface, adsorbed surface or surface with grafted polymer layer we were able to enhance the repulsive barrier due to the free polymers between the particles and therefore found conditions for kinetic stabilization of the system.

Academic and industrial research around polymer-based colloids is huge, driven both by the development of mature technologies, e.g. latexes for coatings, as well as the advancement of new materials and applications, such as building blocks for 2D/3D structures and medicine. Edited by two world-renowned leaders in polymer science and engineering, this is a fundamental text for the field. Based on a specialised course by the editors, this book provides the reader with an invaluable single source of reference. The first section describes formation, explaining basic properties of emulsions and dispersion polymerization, microfluidic approaches to produce polymer-based colloids and formation via directed self-assembly. The next section details characterisation methodologies from microscopy and small angle scattering, to surface science and simulations. The final chapters close with applications, including Pickering emulsions and molecular engineering for materials development. A comprehensive guide to polymer colloids, with contributions by leaders in their respective areas, this book is a must-have for researchers and practitioners working across polymers, soft matter and chemical and molecular engineering.