Modeling of colloid agglomeration inhibition inside a slitlike pore.

An extended particle agglomeration control model and Monte Carlo simulation methodology were used to describe the behavior of the colloidal aggregation process in presence of inhibitor as a confined fluid. In this work results about the mean cluster size, Z, with respect to different variables, temperature, inhibitor concentration and pore size, are presented and showed that Z strongly depends on the slitlike pore size. In addition, a temperature interval where the heating of the system leads to the particle clustering was found.

Temperature dependence of the colloidal agglomeration inhibition: computer simulation study.

There exist experimental evidences that the structure and extension of colloidal aggregates in suspensions change dramatically with temperature. This results in an associated change in the suspension rheology. Experimental studies of the inhibitor applications to control the particle clustering have revealed some unexpected tendencies. Namely, the heating of colloidal suspensions has provoked either extension or reduction of the colloidal aggregates. To elucidate the origin of this behavior, we investigate the influence of temperature on the stabilizing effect of the inhibitor, applying an associative two-component fluid model. Our results of the canonical Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the anomalous effect of the temperature may not be necessarily explained by the temperature dependent changes in the inhibitor tail conformation, as has been suggested recently by Won et al. [Langmuir 21, 924 (2005)]. We show that the competition between colloid-colloid and colloid-inhibitor associations, which, in turn, depends on the temperature and the relative concentrations, may be one of the main reasons for the unexpected temperature dependence of inhibitor efficacy.