Fig. 1.
Theoretical model for polymer-network-mediated colloidal interactions. (A) Schematic layout of two colloids with diameter σ (dark blue circles) at distance R = |R| partially embedded in a polymer substrate delimited by the horizontal dashed line. The dashed circle of radius |S| = σbc delimits the range of blob-colloid hard-core repulsion whereas attractive blob-colloid interaction of energy -ϵ is active in the annular region of internal radius σbc and external radius |Sλ| = λσbc. (B and C) Theoretical colloid-colloid effective potentials computed for N = 1,000, b = 0.005σ, and δ = 0.1 for different values of l using the ideal gas approximation for distribution of the blobs in Eq. 5 (B) and applying the second-order correction for blob-blob interactions in Eq. 6 (C). (D) Pair potentials computed assuming ϵ = 0. The legend applies to B, C, and D.