Berlin 2018 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 3: Complex Fluids and Colloids I (joint session CPP/DY)

DY 3.3: Vortrag

Montag, 12. März 2018, 10:00–10:15, C 264

Spontaneous symmetry breaking of charge-regulated surfaces — •Arghya Majee¹, Markus Bier¹, and Rudolf Podgornik² — ¹MPI for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart & University of Stuttgart, Germany — ²J. Stefan Institute, Ljubljana & University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

The interaction between two chemically identical charge-regulated surfaces is studied using the classical density functional theory. In contrast to common expectations and assumptions, under certain realistic conditions we find a spontaneous emergence of disparate charge densities on the two surfaces [1]. The surface charge densities can differ not only in their magnitude, but quite unexpectedly, even in their sign, implying that the electrostatic interaction between the two chemically identical surfaces can be attractive instead of repulsive. Moreover, an initial symmetry with equal charge densities on both surfaces can also be broken spontaneously upon decreasing the separation between the two surfaces. These findings are fundamental for the understanding of the forces between colloidal objects and, in particular, they are bound to strongly influence the present picture of protein interaction.

Reference:

[1] A. Majee, M. Bier, and R. Podgornik, arXiv: 1709.05005 (2017).