Studies on electrostatic interactions of colloidal particles under two-dimensional confinement

TL;DR

This study investigates electrostatic interactions between charged colloids confined in two dimensions, revealing conditions for attraction and the persistence of long-range repulsion due to incomplete screening and higher-order moments.

Contribution

It introduces a simplified model to analyze rotational fluctuations and demonstrates the coexistence of attraction and repulsion in 2D colloidal systems, highlighting the role of higher-order moments.

Findings

Effective attractions occur under specific conditions.

Long-range repulsions persist due to residual quadrupole moments.

Higher-order electrostatic interactions contribute to short-range attraction.

Abstract

We study the effective electrostatic interactions between a pair of charged colloidal particles without salt ions while the system is confined in two dimensions. In particular we use a simplified model to elucidate the effects of rotational fluctuations in counterion distribution. The results exhibit effective colloidal attractions under appropriate conditions. Meanwhile, long-range repulsions persist over most of our studied cases. The repulsive forces arise from the fact that in two dimensions the charged colloids cannot be perfectly screened by counterions, as the residual quadrupole moments contribute to the repulsions at longer range. And by applying multiple expansions we find that the attractive forces observed at short range are mainly contributed from electrostatic interactions among higher-order electric moments. We argue that the scenario for attractive interactions discussed in this work is applicable to systems of charged nanoparticles or colloidal solutions with macroions.