A STATISTICAL-MECHANICS APPROACH TO COLLOIDAL SUSPENSIONS

Despite the large differences in mass, length and time scales, suspensions of spherical colloidal particles in a solvent share many features of simple atomic liquids, including structure, phase behaviour and even the transition to a glassy state at high concentrations. The analogies, but also the differences, will be illustrated by a few recent applications of the Statistical Mechanics formalism of simple liquids to sterically or charge-stabilized, concentrated colloidal suspensions. Examples include sedimentation equilibrium and non-linear screening of charged colloids by counterions.