SURFACE FORCES IN COLLOIDAL PROCESSING WITH NANO-PARTICLES

Abstract

Surface forces acting between particles and different contributions to the forces are outlined with particular attention paid to the colloidal stability with nanosize particles. This is followed by a discussion of surface forces for nanosize particles and an introduction of a novel nanosize colloidal probe technique in an atomic force microscope.

Keywords:

• Surface forces
• Colloidal processing
• Nano-particle
• van der Waals interaction
• Colloidal stability
• Surface force measurement
• Atomic force microscope
• Carbon nanotube

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Particle Science and Technology at the University of Florida and The National Science Foundation (NSF) grant #EEC-94-02989.