Remco Tuinier (TU Eindhoven)

Laboratory for Physical ChemistryDepartment of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry &Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS)Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands  

In the last decades it was shown that the stability of colloidal dispersions can be controlled by adding non-adsorbing polymers or other particles [1]. Often the depletion-interaction is used as the tool to induce a controlled, tuneable attraction between colloidal particles in model systems [2,3]. In this talk an introduction to the basics of the depletion interaction and the resulting phase behaviour of colloidal mixtures is given, with a few illustrative novel results on anisotropic colloids. Subsequently, examples are given on the relevance for crowding in cells [4], food science and technology [5], protein crystallization [6] and concentration of rod-like bacteria [7]. 

References:[1] H.N.W. Lekkerkerker, R. Tuinier, M. Vis, Colloids and the Depletion Interaction, 2nd edition, Springer, 2011, Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52131-7[2] W. C. K. Poon, J. Phys: Condens. Matter 14, (2002) R859[3] G.J. Fleer, R. Tuinier, Adv. Colloid Interface Sci. 143 (2008) 1-47[4] L. Sapir and D. Harries, Wisdom of the crowd in “Bunsen-Magazin” 19 (2017) 152—162[5] V. B. Tolstoguzov, Food Hydrocolloids4 (1991) 429[6] S. Tanaka, M. Ataka, J. Chem. Phys.117 (2002) 3504[7] V. F. D. Peters , M. Vis, R. Tuinier, H. N. W. Lekkerkerker, J. Chem. Phys. 154 (2021) 151101