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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Confocal Imaging of Confined Quiescent and Flowing Colloid-polymer Mixtures
Published on: May 20, 2014
Bulk and interfacial properties in colloid-polymer mixtures
R L C Vink1, A Jusufi, J Dzubiella
1Institut für Physik, Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität, Staudinger Weg 7, D-55099 Mainz, Germany.
Abstract:
Large-scale Monte Carlo simulations of a phase-separating colloid-polymer mixture are performed and compared to recent experiments. The approach is based on effective interaction potentials in which the central monomers of self-avoiding polymer chains are used as effective coordinates. By incorporating polymer nonideality together with soft colloid-polymer repulsion, the predicted binodal is in excellent agreement with recent experiments. In addition, the interfacial tension as well as the capillary length are in quantitative agreement with experimental results obtained at a number of points in the phase-coexistence region, without the use of any fit parameters.
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