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Interaction between silica particles with poly(ethylene oxide) studied using an optical tweezer: insignificant effect of poly(ethylene oxide) on long-range double layer interaction

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Abstract

It is known that the adsorption of nonionic polymers or surfactants reduces the magnitude of zeta potential of colloidal particles and provides the steric repulsion between particles. A question remains as to whether nonionic polymers affect the structure of the electric double layer (EDL). To elucidate the effect of nonionic polymer on EDL, we investigated the long-range interaction forces between silica particles in aqueous solutions with different molecular weights of polyethylene oxide (PEO) having higher affinity to silica by using optical tweezers. For all measurements, long-ranged repulsive interactions were observed. The onset of the interaction force for bare particles and those with low molecular weight PEO remained identical and was consistent with the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) predictions. This result indicates that the adsorption of nonionic PEO does not affect the charging properties of silica, and the interaction originates from the overlapping of the EDL. With high molecular weight PEO, the onset of interactions shifted to a few hundred nanometers larger than those for bare particles and was quantified using the Alexander-de Gennes model, suggesting the steric interactions originate from the protruding tails and/or loops of the adsorbed PEO layer. Based on the force measurements, we emphasize that the adsorption of nonionic polymer onto the surface of the silica particles does not affect the EDL surrounding the particles. Hence, we corroborate the notion that the reduction of the magnitude of zeta potential in the presence of nonionic polymer is attributable to the shift of the shear plane from the hydrodynamic viewpoint.

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Funding

The authors are grateful for the financial support of JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 20F20388, 21K14939, 22H00387, and 19H03070.

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  1. Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8572, Japan

    Lester C. Geonzon, Motoyoshi Kobayashi, Takuya Sugimoto & Yasuhisa Adachi

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Contributions

Lester C. Geonzon: conceptualization, investigation, methodology, software, data curation, formal analysis, validation, visualization, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing. Motoyoshi Kobayashi: supervision, conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, visualization, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, resources, funding acquisition, and project administration. Takuya Sugimoto: formal analysis and writing—review and editing. Yasuhisa Adachi: supervision, formal analysis, writing—review and editing, resources, funding acquisition, and project administration.

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Correspondence to Motoyoshi Kobayashi.

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Geonzon, L.C., Kobayashi, M., Sugimoto, T. et al. Interaction between silica particles with poly(ethylene oxide) studied using an optical tweezer: insignificant effect of poly(ethylene oxide) on long-range double layer interaction. Colloid Polym Sci 300, 1179–1186 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-022-05020-x

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