Electrically induced anisotropy in a colloidal dispersion of nanospheres as measured by electric birefringence

C Chassagne; D Bedeaux; J P M V D Ploeg; G J M Koper

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2005.08.030

Electrically induced anisotropy in a colloidal dispersion of nanospheres as measured by electric birefringence

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2006 Mar 15;295(2):528-34. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2005.08.030. Epub 2005 Sep 12.

Authors

C Chassagne¹, D Bedeaux, J P M V D Ploeg, G J M Koper

Affiliation

¹ Department of Physical Chemistry, NTNU, 7491 Trondheim, Norway. chassagne@phys.chem.ntnu.no

PMID: 16165146
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2005.08.030

Abstract

Electrically induced birefringence experiments were performed on dispersions consisting of sulfate latex nanospheres of two different sizes and charges dispersed in an electrolyte solution, at various ionic strengths. The induced birefringence was found to have an important contribution increasing as a quadratic power law of the volume fraction of the spheres. This shows that interparticle interactions play a role in the observed birefringence. The data were analyzed, using a theory from Hafkenscheid and Vlieger [Physica 75 (1974) 57], in terms of the changes of the interparticle separations in the directions parallel and perpendicular to the applied electric field.