Biomedical subjects

D G A L Aarts

Publications and source records attributed to D G A L Aarts.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Capillary length in a fluid-fluid demixed colloid-polymer mixture.

We report measurements of the interfacial profile close to a vertical wall in a fluid-fluid demixed colloid-polymer mixture. The profile is measured by means of laser scanning confocal microscopy. It is accurately described by the interplay between the Laplace and hydrostatic pressure and from this description the capillary length is obtained. For different statepoints approaching the critical point the capillary length varies from 50 to 5 microm. These results are compared to theory. The mass density difference Deltarho is calculated from the bulk phase behavior, which is described within free volume theory with polymers modeled as penetrable hard spheres. The interfacial tension gamma is calculated within a squared gradient approximation. The capillary length is then given through with g equal to the Earth's acceleration. Predictions from theory are in overall qualitative agreement with experiment without the use of any adjustable parameter.

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PubMed2004

Destruction of long-range order recorded with in situ small-angle x-ray diffraction in drying colloidal crystals.

High-resolution synchrotron small-angle x-ray diffraction is applied to characterize the structure and long-range order in a sedimentary hard-sphere colloidal crystal before and during its drying. The principles of the technique and the influence of the coherence properties of the x-ray beam are discussed in detail. The capillary forces generated during the drying process are shown to destroy the long-range order and to break the crystal into smaller crystallites with slightly different orientations. The diffraction is shown to switch from the dynamic regime in the long-range-ordered crystal to nearly kinematic diffraction in the mosaic (short-range-ordered) crystal.

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PubMed2004

Interfacial tension and wetting in colloid-polymer mixtures.

We calculate the interfacial tension and the wetting behavior in phase separated colloid-polymer mixtures both for ideal and excluded volume interacting polymers. Within the recently developed extension of the free volume theory to include polymer interactions the interfacial tension of the free interface is calculated by adding a van der Waals squared gradient term. The wetting behavior at a hard wall is calculated following a Cahn-Fisher-Nakanishi approach taking the one- and two-body colloid-wall interactions into account. Comparing results for interacting polymers with those for ideal polymers we find that for interacting polymers the interfacial tension does not increase as steeply as a function of the gas-liquid colloid density difference. Furthermore, the wetting transition shifts to higher polymer concentrations, even to above the triple line. The predictions for both the interfacial tension and the wetting are compared to recent experiments.

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PubMed2003

Bragg rods and multiple X-ray scattering in random-stacking colloidal crystals.

Synchrotron small-angle x-ray diffraction images of random-stacking-induced Bragg scattering rods are obtained in a wide range of wave vectors from a single colloidal crystal. The results reveal a strong multiple scattering effect, which leads to new features in the diffraction pattern-secondary Bragg rods. We argue that dynamic x-ray diffraction is rather common for high-quality colloidal photonic crystals and should be taken into account.

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PubMed2002

Interaction potential between two spheres mediated by excluded volume polymers.

The interaction between two spheres in a solution of nonadsorbing polymers, with excluded volume interaction, is calculated from the depletion layers around the spheres using the generalized Gibbs adsorption equation. By combining the bulk correlation length with the curvature-dependent interfacial tension between a sphere and the surrounding polymer solution [Hanke, Eisenriegler, and Dietrich, Phys. Rev. E 59, 6853 (1999)], the depletion layer thickness around a sphere is obtained. The resulting contact potential agrees with a scaling prediction of de Gennes in the semidilute regime.

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PubMed2002

High-resolution small-angle x-ray diffraction study of long-range order in hard-sphere colloidal crystals.

The long-range order parameters in single crystals of hard colloidal spheres grown in sediments of colloid-polymer mixtures are determined using synchrotron small-angle x-ray diffraction with a resolution of 10(-6) of the wave vector. The interplanar positional order derived from the width of lattice reflections extends over at least 500 lattice planes. The lattice planes are orientationally correlated within approximately 0.1 degrees throughout the crystals, whereas the stacking of hexagonal planes remains random.

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