Phase behaviour of a dispersion of charge-stabilised colloidal spheres with added non-adsorbing interacting polymer chains

Abstract

We present a theory for the phase behaviour of mixtures of charge-stabilised colloidal spheres plus interacting polymer chains in good and theta -solvents within the framework of free-volume theory. We use simple but accurate combination rules for the depletion thickness around a colloidal particle and for the osmotic pressure up to the semi-dilute concentration regime. Hence, we obtain expressions for the free energy for mixtures of charged colloidal particles and non-adsorbing interacting polymers. From that, we calculate the phase behaviour, and discuss its topology in dependence on the competition between the charge-induced repulsion and the polymer-induced attraction. The homogeneous mixture of colloids and polymers becomes more stabilised against demixing when increasing the electrostatic repulsion. This charge-induced stabilisation is strongest for small polymer-to-colloid size ratios and is more pronounced for charged colloids mixed with polymers in a good solvent than for polymers in a theta -solvent. For the weakly charged regime we find that the phase diagram becomes salt-concentration-independent in the protein limit for charged colloids plus polymers in a theta -solvent. The liquid window, i.e., the concentration regimes where a colloidal liquid exists, is narrowed down upon increasing the charge-induced repulsion. Also this effect is more pronounced when charged colloids are mixed with polymer chains in a good solvent. In summary, we demonstrate that the solvent quality significantly influences the phase behaviour of mixtures of charged colloids plus non-adsorbing polymers if the range of the screened electrostatic repulsion becomes of the order of the range of the depletion-induced attraction.