Nonlinear effects in the stability of highly charged colloidal suspensions- art. no. 032401

We investigate the nonlinear effects related to the formation of particle-c ounterion clusters in highly charged asymmetric colloidal suspensions. The ocurrence of such clustering is experimentally probed by studying the stabi lity of the colloidal system. The results demonstrate that a renormalized c harge is needed in order to explain the observed critical coagulation conce ntrations. This renormalization is predicted by an extension of the Debye-H uckel-Bjerrum liquid state theory [A. Diehl, M. C. Barbosa, and Y. Levin, E urophys. Lett. 53, 86 (2001)]. Therefore, counterion condensation seems to become apparent in particle aggregation processes through control of the re pulsive barrier that keeps the system stable. As a consequence of the agree ment, new insights into the microscopic state of highly charged complex flu ids follow.