Phase equilibria and glass transition in colloidal systems with short-ranged attractive interactions. Application to protein crystallization

• Main Authors: Foffi, Giuseppe, McCullagh, Gavin D, Lawlor, Aonghus, Zaccarelli, Emanuela, Dawson, Kenneth A, Sciortino, Francesco, Tartaglia, Piero, Pini, Davide, Stell, George
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 12-11-2001
• Subjects: Physics - Soft Condensed Matter
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0111221

We have studied a model of a complex fluid consisting of particles
interacting through a hard core and a short range attractive potential of both
Yukawa and square-well form. Using a hybrid method, including a self-consistent
and quite accurate approximation for the liquid integral equation in the case
of the Yukawa fluid, perturbation theory to evaluate the crystal free energies,
and mode-coupling theory of the glass transition, we determine both the
equilibrium phase diagram of the system and the lines of equilibrium between
the supercooled fluid and the glass phases. For these potentials, we study the
phase diagrams for different values of the potential range, the ratio of the
range of the interaction to the diameter of the repulsive core being the main
control parameter. Our arguments are relevant to a variety of systems, from
dense colloidal systems with depletion forces, through particle gels,
nano-particle aggregation, and globular protein crystallization.