Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 25: Colloids and Complex Liquids I - Structure

CPP 25.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 11:00–11:15, ZEU 222

Computer simulations of cluster formation via emulsion droplet evaporation — •Andrea Fortini, Ingmar Schwarz, and Matthias Schmidt — Theoretische Physik II, Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany

Using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate a theoretical model of colloidal particles that interact with short-ranged attraction and long-ranged repulsion. A second hard-sphere component represents emulsion droplets that interact only with an attractive well with the colloids. The potential well has a minimum at the droplet surface and induces the Pickering effect. The droplets are taken to shrink in time, in order to model experimental conditions of droplet evaporation. We investigate the resulting morphology of colloidal clusters that have formed after complete evaporation of the droplets. We find stable packings that range from sphere doublets, triangles, and tetrahedra to complex polyhedra. We compare the resulting structures with experimental results [1,2].

[1] Manoharan et al. Science (2003) 301, 483.

[2] Wagner et al. Langmuir (2008) 24, 12126.