Liquid-like structure of charged colloidal dispersions in the presence of screening ions

Abstract

The liquid-like structure of a polystyrene latex solution of particle size 109 nm and its dependence on the ionic strength of added sodium chloride is investigated via the static light scattering structure factor S(Q). The experimental S(Q)s are compared with structure factors derived in the rescaled mean spherical approximation (RMSA) of Hansen and Hayter. After adjustment of the macromolecular charge Z _M such that the neat (salt free) latex solution is best represented by the RMSA, the experimental structure factors obtained after addition of salt can adequately be accounted for in terms of the RMSA by merely readjusting the ionic strength in the calculations. Our investigation indicates that the RMSA and the underlying screened Coulomb potential are suited for a detailed simulation of the structure and structural changes due to a variation of the ionic strength of liquid-like ordered solutions.