Colloidal dispersion confined in a planar slit: A density functional approach

Abstract

We present a simple density functional approach for the prediction of the local density profile of a colloidal suspension confined in a charged planar slit. Both the interparticle and wall–particle interactions are modeled to be of screened Coulomb type. The short range part of the interparticle correlation is treated through a nonperturbative weighted density approach, while the long range contribution is treated perturbatively in terms of the density inhomogeneity. The input correlation functions for the bulk fluid are obtained through the rescaled mean spherical approximation. The calculated density profiles are shown on an average to compare well with results from computer simulation.