Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Nonadditivity of polymeric and charged surface interactions: consequences for doped lamellar phases
1School of Physics, University of Edinburgh, JCMB King's Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, Scotland.
Abstract:
We explore theoretically the modifications to the interactions between charged surfaces across an ionic solution caused by the presence of dielectric polymers. Although the chains are neutral, the polymer physics and the electrostatics are coupled; the intrasurface electric fields polarize any low-permittivity species (e.g., polymer) dissolved in a high-permittivity solvent (e.g., water). This coupling enhances the polymer depletion from the surfaces and increases the screening of electrostatic interactions with respect to a model which treats polymeric and electrostatic effects as independent. As a result, the range of the ionic contribution to the osmotic interaction between surfaces is decreased while that of the polymeric contribution is increased. These changes modify the total interaction in a nonadditive manner. Building on the results for parallel surfaces, we investigate the effect of this coupling on the phase behavior of polymer-doped smectics.
Related Concept Videos
Van der Waals Interactions
Intermolecular Forces
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
Potential Due to a Polarized Object
Electrochemical Systems
The Electrical Double Layer

