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Polymer depletion interaction between two parallel repulsive walls

F. Schlesener·A. Hanke·R. Klimpel·S. Dietrich
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Abstract

The depletion interaction between two parallel repulsive walls confining a dilute solution of long and flexible polymer chains is studied by field-theoretic methods. Special attention is paid to self-avoidance between chain monomers relevant for polymers in a good solvent. Our direct approach avoids the mapping of the actual polymer chains on effective hard or soft spheres. We compare our results with recent Monte Carlo simulations [A. Milchev and K. Binder, Eur. Phys. J. B 3, 477 (1998)] and with experimental results for the depletion interaction between a spherical colloidal particle and a planar wall in a dilute solution of nonionic polymers [D. Rudhardt, C. Bechinger, and P. Leiderer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1330 (1998)].

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F. Schlesener, A. Hanke, R. Klimpel, S. Dietrich. 2001-11-01. Polymer depletion interaction between two parallel repulsive walls. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.63.041803

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