Casimir-like forces at the percolation transition

Nicoletta Gnan (), Emanuela Zaccarelli and Francesco Sciortino
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Nicoletta Gnan: CNR-ISC, UOS Sapienza, P.le A. Moro 2
Emanuela Zaccarelli: CNR-ISC, UOS Sapienza, P.le A. Moro 2
Francesco Sciortino: ‘Sapienza’ Università di Roma, P.le A. Moro 2

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Percolation and critical phenomena show common features such as scaling and universality. Colloidal particles, immersed in a solvent close to criticality, experience long-range effective forces named critical Casimir forces. Building on the analogy between critical phenomena and percolation, here we explore the possibility of observing long-range forces near a percolation threshold. To this aim, we numerically evaluate the effective potential between two colloidal particles dispersed in a chemical sol, and we show that it becomes attractive and long-ranged on approaching the sol percolation transition. We develop a theoretical description based on a polydisperse Asakura–Oosawa model that captures the divergence of the interaction range, allowing us to interpret such effect in terms of depletion interactions in a structured solvent. Our results provide the geometric analogue of the critical Casimir force, suggesting a novel way for tuning colloidal interactions by controlling the clustering properties of the solvent.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4267

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