Abstract
Colloid–polymer mixtures are found in dispersions that are an important part of people’severyday lives. The dynamics and phase stability of colloid–polymer mixtures depend onthe interactions that are present in these systems. Therefore, knowledge of interactions is ofbasic interest. Depending on their adsorption affinity polymers added to the colloidalsuspension can cause steric stabilization or flocculation due to depletion or adsorption(bridging). This paper reviews theoretical and experimental work performed onpolymer-induced interactions in colloidal suspensions. Theoretically, polymers have mainlybeen treated as ideal flexible chains or even generalized as non-interacting (phantom)spheres. Many relevant experiments, however, have been performed with polymer chains,which are polydisperse and/or charged and/or self-interacting. These cases are challengingfor theoreticians: a limited amount of work performed on these systems is alsodiscussed here. We particularly concentrate in this review on the direct experimentalmeasurement of polymer-induced interactions. A brief description of techniqueswhich enable these measurements is given and their strengths and weaknessesare discussed.
Published Version
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