Crystalline and Liquid Crystalline Order in Concentrated Colloidal Dispersions: An Overview

The equilibrium thermodynamic and structural properties of colloidal dispersions may be treated in the same way as in the case of simple liquids by considering the colloidal particles as “supramolecules” dispersed in a continuous (but fluctuating) back-ground. The potential which for the case of fluctuating forces replaces the interaction potential between molecules (in vacuo) is the potential of the average forces which act between the dispersed particles. This effective interaction is the input for statistical mechanical theories. Therefore statistical mechanical theories developed for simple fluids can be applied to colloidal dispersions. The theoretical basis for such a treatment was given by Onsager1 and Mc Millan and Mayer2. In recent years concepts of liquid state theory have been applied successfully to understand the behavior of concentrated colloidal dispersions3,4.