Colloids 2D — Brownian Motion & DLVO Aggregation

Suspension

Particle count: 220 Temperature T: 298 K

DLVO interaction

Salt / ionic strength: 5.0 mM Particle charge (ζ): 1.0

Stats

Particles—

Clusters—

Avg cluster size—

Largest cluster—

Diffusion D—

Dispersed (stable sol)

A top-down view of colloidal particles jittering by Brownian motion (Stokes–Einstein: D = k_BT / 6πηr). Whether they stay dispersed or flocculate is set by DLVO theory: short-range van der Waals attraction competes with an electrostatic repulsion barrier that salt screens away. Push the salt slider up (or the charge slider down) to collapse the barrier and watch fractal clusters grow.