The effective interaction between colloidal hard sphere particles in disordered microporous media

Abstract

Using the replica Omstein-Zernike (ROZ) integral equations, the effective interaction between hard sphere colloidal particles in the presence of a hard sphere solvent, both dispersed either in a disordered quenched matrix of hard spheres is analyzed in this work. The ROZ equations are complemented by the Percus-Yevick (PY) closure. The presence of a disordered matrix is manifested in the attractive minima of the colloid-colloid potential of mean force (PMF), in addition to a set of minima due to the presence of solvent species. The effects of matrix porosity and solvent density on the PMF are investigated.