Diffusive properties of colloidal charged particles in a quasi-one-dimensional confinement

Abstract

Diffusive properties of colloidal crystals in a quasi-one-dimensional channel are studied using numerical simulations. In order to study the influence of the attractive interaction between particles, it was introduced as an artificial dimensionless parameter β in the attractive term of the interaction potential. Changing the value of β, we can tune the effect of attraction between particles. We show that charged particles can change their mobility and the diffusion exponent of a one-chain like system. Variation on exponent diffusion can be induced by tuning the attractive part of interaction potential, making possible the existence of diffusive regimes between single-file diffusion (SFD) and normal diffusion, without changing confinement strength. System stoichiometry was changed, imposing particles in different arrangements in small clusters, which varies the diffusive behaviour. If stoichiometry is different from 1:1, it is possible to have particles with equal charges but with different mobilities. Another important observation is that mean-square displacement (MSD) for different charges is different for different values.