Confinement-induced symmetry breaking of interfacial surfactant layers

The Journal of Physical Chemistry. B
Frans A M LeermakersJ Kijlstra

Abstract

Interaction forces between mesoscopic objects are fundamental to soft-condensed matter and are among the prime targets of investigation in colloidal systems. Surfactant molecules are often used to tailor these interactions. The forces are experimentally accessible and for a first theoretical analysis one can make use of a parallel-plate geometry. We present molecularly realistic self-consistent field calculations for an aqueous nonionic surfactant solution near the critical micellization concentration, in contact with two hydrophobic surfaces. The surfactants adsorb cooperatively, and form a monolayer onto each surface. At weak overlap the force increases with increasing compression of the monolayers until suddenly a symmetry braking takes place. One of the monolayers is removed jump-like and as the remaining monolayer can relax, some attraction is observed, which gives way to repulsion at further confinement. The restoring of symmetry at strong confinement occurs as a second-order transition and the force jumps once again from repulsion to attraction. It is anticipated that the metastable branch of the interaction curve will be probed in a typical force experiment. Under normal conditions pronounced hysteresis in the surface f...Continue Reading

References

Mar 15, 2003·Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics·A L RabinovichF A M Leermakers
Mar 15, 2003·Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics·F A M LeermakersN K Balabaev
Oct 19, 2005·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·L K KoopalW A Ducker
Nov 16, 2005·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·F A M LeermakersW A Ducker

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Citations

Feb 2, 2011·The Journal of Chemical Physics·M BorówkoJ Ilnytskyi
Mar 30, 2011·The Journal of Physical Chemistry. B·Maria L Sushko, Jun Liu
Aug 14, 2008·The Journal of Physical Chemistry. B·Michal Borkovec, Sven H Behrens

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