Extended DLVO interactions between spherical particles and rough surfaces

An “extended DLVO” approach that includes Lifshitz–van der Waals, Lewis acid–base, and electrostatic double layer interactions is used to describe interaction energies between spherical particles and rough surfaces. Favorable, unfavorable, and intermediate deposition conditions are simulated using surface properties representing common aquatic colloids and polymeric membranes. The surface element integration (SEI) technique and Derjaguin's integration method are employed to calculate interaction energy. Numerical simulations using SEI demonstrate that nanometer scale surface roughness features can produce a distribution of interaction energy profiles. Local interaction energies are statistically analyzed to define representative interaction energy profiles—minimum, average, and maximum—for various combinations of simulated particles and surfaces. In all cases, the magnitude of the average interaction energy profile is reduced, but the reduction of energy depends on particle size, asperity size, and density of asperities. In some cases, a surface that is on average unfavorable for deposition (repulsive) may possess locally favorable (attractive) sites solely due to nanoscale surface roughness. A weighted average of the analytical sphere–sphere and sphere–plate expressions of Derjaguin reasonably approximates the average interaction energy profiles predicted by the SEI model, where the weighting factor is based on the fraction of interactions involving asperities.

Extended DLVO interactions between nanoparticles and surfaces with nanoscale roughness features are modeled.Figure optionsDownload high-quality image (75 K)Download as PowerPoint slide