Importance of Molecular Interactions in Colloidal Dispersions

Figure 1

Model of interaction between colloidal particles of radius and solvent. The leftmost image represents a dispersion of colloidal particles (in red), coated with polymers, which are dispersed with polymer chains (in yellow). The central image illustrates the size difference between the colloids (in gray) and the solvent molecules (in cyan). Because of this size difference, colloidal particles can be considered as planar walls when modeling their interactions with the solvent, as shown in the rightmost image.