Heteroaggregation between charged hard and soft particles

Abstract

The heteroaggregation of hard and soft particles with opposite sign of charge was studied by static and dynamic light scattering. The cluster structure as well as the aggregation kinetics were investigated. The clusters were observed to be highly branched in the presence of attractive and repulsive forces, although the mass evolution does not indicate relevant differences with respect to diffusion aggregation; however, at high ionic concentration, where diffusion aggregation is expected, very compact clusters were found as well as very fast aggregation. These findings support the idea that the reactivity of the larger clusters is especially relevant.