Adhesion Probability of Colloidal Particles with Repulsive Soft Interaction

Abstract Computer simulations of the irreversible adhesion of charged colloidal particles at a solid/liquid interface are performed to determine whether the distribution of particles in the vicinity of a preadsorbed (also charged) one follows the Boltzmann law applied to an a priori uniform adhesion probability, as first assumed by Adamczyk et al. ( J. Colloid Interface Sci. 140, 123 (1990)). If true, this would indicate that the whole information on the deposition process is contained in the potential energy distribution on the adsorbing surface. In general, diffusion in a field of force and the irreversibility of the process induce significant deviations from the Boltzmann-weighted uniform adhesion density. Nevertheless, it is shown that for particles characterized by a small gravitational energy this procedure leads to a reasonable first approximation of the distribution of the particles over the adsorbing surface. This observation thus demonstrates the validity of Adamczyk's assumption and extends its range of applicability to the case of a weak gravitational field.