Internal and free energy in a pair of like-charged colloids: Monte Carlo simulations

The effective interaction between two colloidal particles in a bath of monovalent co- and counterions is studied by means of lattice Monte Carlo simulations with the primitive model. The internal electrostatic energy as a function of the colloid distance is studied fixing the position of the colloids. The free energy of the whole system is obtained introducing a bias parabolic potential, that allows us to sample efficiently small separations between the colloidal particles. For small charges, both the internal and free energy increase when the colloids approach each other, resulting in an effective repulsion driven by the electrostatic repulsion. When the colloidal charge is large enough, on the other hand, the colloid-ion coupling is strong enough to form double layers. The internal energy in this case decreases upon approaching the colloids because more ions enter the double layer. This attractive contribution to the interaction between the colloids is stronger for larger charges and larger ionic concentrations. However, the total free energy increases due to the loss of ionic entropy, and resulting finally in a repulsive interaction potential driven by the entropic contributions. The loss of ionic entropy can be almost quantitatively reproduced with the ideal contribution, the same level of approximation as the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. The overall behavior is captured by the DLVO theory qualitatively, and a comparison is made with the functional form predicted by the theory, showing moderate agreement.