Associated and polymerically stabilized dispersions

William B. Russel, Stacey Elliott, Robert A. Lionberger
1999 AIP Conference Proceedings  
Our objective is to elucidate the relationships among interparticle forces, microstructure, and rheological properties for concentrated colloidal dispersions and associative polymer solutions. Here we address stable dispersions of spheres bearing grafted polymer chains and solutions of polymer with water soluble backbones modified by the addition of terminal hydrophobes. Non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, combined with treatments of micelles and brushes from the polymer physics literature,
more » ... ffers a means for confirming in detail the mechanisms suggested by recent experiments. REVIEW OF NON-EQUILIBRIUM THEORY Our description of a monodispersion of spheres addresses events on the diffusion time scale through a Smoluchowski equation that governs the distribution function for the configuration of all N particles in the system I;~. Integration of the conservation equation for the N-particle distribution function PN over the positions of N-2 particles yields ~e2 + v. P2(V, -v2)2 --o (l)
doi:10.1063/1.58587 fatcat:2xaql4ll6fhktdtzsmes7tp63e