When Like Charges Attract: The Effects of Geometrical Confinement on Long-Range Colloidal Interactions

Abstract

High-resolution measurements of the interaction potential between pairs of charged colloidal microspheres suspended in water provide stringent tests for theories of colloidal interactions. The screened Coulomb repulsions we observe for isolated spheres agree quantitatively with predictions of the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. Confining the same spheres between charged glass walls, however, induces a strong long-range attractive interaction which is not accounted for by the DLVO theory.