J. Wagner et al., Long time self-diffusion in suspensions of highly charged colloids: A comparison between pulsed field gradient NMR and Brownian dynamics, J CHEM PHYS, 114(2), 2001, pp. 975-983
The long time self-diffusion of highly charged colloidal particles consisti
ng of polybutylacrylate was studied employing pulsed field gradient NMR (PF
GNMR) and Brownian dynamics (BD) simulations. The potential parameters for
the Yukawa interaction potential used in the BD simulations were derived fr
om the static structure factor measured by means of light scattering. The l
ong time self-diffusion coefficients resulting from NMR and BD were compare
d for different ionic strengths, which cause a screening of the interaction
potential due to stray ions. Increasing the ionic strength of the colloida
l suspensions, we observed a phase transition from a crystalline to a liqui
dlike structure. Whereas at high salt concentrations both long time diffusi
on coefficients agree within a few percent, at intermediate ionic strengths
the values measured via PFGNMR are by a factor of 2 higher than those pred
icted by the BD simulation. This deviation is explained by hydrodynamic int
eractions which are expected to enhance long time self-diffusion and which
are not taken into account in our BD algorithm. (C) 2001 American Institute
of Physics.