Abstract
This paper reviews ‘entropic patchiness’ of colloidal particles. On the one hand this may be due to their intrinsic tendency to form certain shape-dependent configurations in crowded suspensions, on the other hand this can be strongly enhanced by using depletion interactions that are also of purely entropic origin. A brief account of the Onsager theory and its consequences for the formation of colloidal liquid crystals of highly anisometric particles is presented. It is further supplemented by a recap of the description of depletion attraction between colloids and the effects of their shape. A number of recent examples exploiting entropic patchiness are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 54-61 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science |
| Volume | 30 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jul 2017 |