Phase Separation in Binary Nearly-Hard-Sphere Colloids: Evidence for the Depletion Force
- 14 February 1992
- journal article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Europhysics Letters
- Vol. 18 (2) , 107-110
- https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/18/2/003
Abstract
A binary aqueous suspension of large (L) and small (S) nearly-hard-sphere colloidal polystyrene spheres is shown to segregate spontaneously into L-rich and S-rich regions for suitable choices of volume fraction and size ratio. This is the first observation of such purely entropic phase separation of chemically identical species in which at least one component remains fluid. Simple theoretical arguments are presented to make this effect plausible.Keywords
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