Dynamic density functional study of a driven colloidal particle in polymer solutions

TL;DR

This study uses Dynamic Density Functional theory and Brownian dynamics simulations to analyze how a colloidal particle drifts in polymer solutions, revealing insights into density distributions and currents for various drift rates.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effectiveness of DDF theory in modeling driven colloids in polymer solutions and compares results with simulations and analytical approaches.

Findings

Good agreement between DDF and BDS results.

Density distributions depend on drifting rates.

Qualitative behaviors align with recent driven colloid studies.

Abstract

The Dynamic Density Functional (DDF) theory and standard Brownian dynamics simulations (BDS) are used to study the drifting effects of a colloidal particle in a polymer solution, both for ideal and interacting polymers. The structure of the stationary density distributions and the total induced current are analyzed for different drifting rates. We find good agreement with the BDS, which gives support to the assumptions of the DDF theory. The qualitative aspect of the density distribution are discussed and compared to recent results for driven colloids in one-dimensional channels and to analytical expansions for the ideal solution limit.