Electrostatic interaction of particles trapped at fluid interfaces: Effects of geometry and wetting properties

TL;DR

This study theoretically investigates how particle shape, curvature, and wetting properties influence electrostatic interactions at fluid interfaces, revealing significant effects near a 90° contact angle and differences between linear and nonlinear theories.

Contribution

It extends the understanding of electrostatic interactions at fluid interfaces by analyzing the effects of particle geometry and wetting properties using the Derjaguin approximation.

Findings

Discrepancies between linear and nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann theories also occur for curved particles.

Inter-particle force varies significantly with contact angle around 90° for equal-sized particles.

The influence of wetting angle depends on Debye length and particle size, not shape.

Abstract

The electrostatic interaction between pairs of spherical or macroscopically long, parallel cylindrical colloids trapped at fluid interfaces is studied theoretically for the case of small inter-particle separations. Starting from the effective interaction between two planar walls and by using the Derjaguin approximation, we address the issue of how the electrostatic interaction between such particles is influenced by their curvatures and by the wetting contact angle at their surfaces. Regarding the influence of curvature, our findings suggest that the discrepancies between linear and nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann theory, which have been noticed before for planar walls, also occur for spheres and macroscopically long, parallel cylinders, though their magnitude depends on the wetting contact angle. Concerning the influence of the wetting contact angle $\theta$ simple relations are obtained for equally sized particles which indicate that the inter-particle force varies significantly with $\theta$ only within an interval around $90^\circ$. This interval depends on the Debye length of the fluids and on the size of the particles but not on their shape. For unequally sized particles, a more complicated relation is obtained for the variation of the inter-particle force with the wetting contact angle.