Adhesion of surfaces mediated by adsorbed particles: Monte Carlo simulations and a general relationship between adsorption isotherms and effective adhesion energies [original]

Adhesion of surfaces mediated by adsorbed particles: Monte Carlo

simulations and a general relationship between adsorption isotherms and

effective adhesion energies

Tillmann Stieger,

Martin Schoen

and Thomas R. Weikl*

Received 3rd July 2012, Accepted 10th September 2012

DOI: 10.1039/c2sm26544c

In colloidal and biological systems, interactions between surfaces are often mediated by adsorbed

particles or molecules that interconnect the surfaces. In this article, we present a general relationship

between the adsorption isotherms of the particles and the effective, particle-mediated adhesion energies

of the surfaces. Our relationship is based on the analysis and modeling of detailed data from Monte

Carlo simulations. As general properties that should hold for a wide class of adsorption scenarios, we

find (i) that the particle-mediated adhesion energies of surfaces are maximal at intermediate bulk

concentrations of the particles, and (ii) that the particle coverage in the bound state of the surfaces is

twice the coverage in the unbound state at these bulk concentrations.

1. Introduction

Adhesion and adsorption are important phenomena in both

colloidal and biological systems. Characteristic aspects of these

systems are that the constituent molecules or particles typically

differ in size, and that the interactions between these constituents

are often dominated by surface interactions. Adsorption refers to

the binding of molecules or particles to the surfaces of larger

constituents and is typically characterized by adsorption

isotherms, i.e. by the surface concentrations of adsorbed mole-

cules or particles as a function of their bulk concentration or

chemical potential. Adhesion refers to the binding of two

surfaces that are typically large compared to molecular dimen-

sions and is characterized by adhesion energies per area.

Adsorption can lead to adhesion if molecules or particles bind

to two apposing surfaces, e.g. to the surfaces of two larger

particles or objects. The adhesion and aggregation of nano-

particles or microparticles, for example, can be mediated by

adsorbed proteins

1–5

or polymers.

6–10

Nanoparticles can affect

the adhesion of microparticles.

The adhesion of lipid

membranes can be caused by adsorbed proteins

12,13

or multiva-

lent ions

that crosslink the membranes. Membrane adhesion

may also be mediated by soluble proteins that interconnect

receptor and ligand proteins anchored in apposing

membranes.

15,16

In this article, we consider an ensemble of particles between

two parallel surfaces in Monte Carlo simulations. The two

surfaces can be seen as surface segments in the contact zone of

two constituents in colloidal or biological systems that are

significantly larger than the particles. The particles adsorb on the

surfaces and mediate adhesion if the separation of the surfaces is

close to the diameter of the particles. In our Monte Carlo

simulations, we determine the pressure that the particles exert on

the surfaces and the area concentrations of the adsorbed particles

at different surface separations. The effective particle-mediated

adhesion energy of the surfaces is then obtained by integrating

the pressure. Interestingly, the effective adhesion energy is

maximal at intermediate bulk concentrations of the particles.

Our analysis of the Monte Carlo results indicates that the

surface concentrations of the adsorbed particles depend in good

approximation on a single parameter, the sum of the chemical

potential and the binding energy of the particles, at least for

binding energies that are significantly larger than the thermal

energy kT where kis Boltzmann’s constant and Tdenotes the

temperature. Integration of these surface concentrations, or

adsorption isotherms, leads to free energies of adsorption in the

bound and unbound state of the surfaces. These free energies of

adsorption provide the basis for a simple model to calculate

effective, particle-mediated adhesion energies of surfaces that can

be generalized to a wide class of adsorption isotherms. The

simple model is in good agreement with the effective adhesion

energies obtained directly from the pressure measured in our

Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, the model explains why

the particle-mediated adhesion energies of surfaces are maximal

at intermediate bulk concentrations of the particles, and why the

particle coverage in the bound state of the surfaces is twice the

coverage in the unbound state at these bulk concentrations. Our

Technische Universit€

at Berlin, Stranski-Laboratorium f€

ur Physikalische

und Theoretische Chemie, Straße des 17. Juni 115, 10623 Berlin, Germany

North Carolina State University, Department of Chemical and

Biomolecular Engineering, 911 Partners Way, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA

Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Department of Theory

and Bio-Systems, Science Park Golm, 14424 Potsdam, Germany

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model generalizes and helps to understand previous results

obtained in the special case of Langmuir adsorption.

17,18

2. The simulation model

We consider spherical particles between two parallel surfaces (see

Fig. 1). The particles repel each other, but are attracted by the

surfaces. In our model, the interaction potential V

between the

particles and the surfaces is short-ranged and decays to zero at

separations zof the particles from the surfaces close to the

particle diameter d(see Fig. 2). The interaction potential V

attains its minimum value Uat the separation of z¼d/2 at

which the particles are in close contact with the surfaces. The

depth Uof the potential minimum corresponds to the binding

energy of the particles at the surfaces. The soft, pairwise repul-

sion of the particles has the form V

¼4kT(d/r)

where ris the

distance between two particle centers.

We assume that the two parallel surfaces are segments of

colloidal objects that are large compared to the particles and

surrounded by the particle solution. The number of particles

between the parallel surfaces then varies because these particles

can exchange with the surrounding bulk of particles. We further

assume that the bulk particles constitute a large particle reser-

voir, with a bulk concentration X

of particles that is determined

by the chemical potential mof the particles (see Fig. 3). The

ensemble of particles between the two parallel surfaces consid-

ered here then corresponds to a grand-canonical ensemble with

chemical potential m.

3. Excess pressure and effective adhesion potential

In this section, we determine the effective, particle-mediated

adhesion potential of the surfaces from the pressure that the

particles exert on the surfaces. This pressure depends on the

separation Lof the surfaces and can be obtained from Monte

Carlo simulations (see Appendix for details). We consider here

the excess pressure to be

Dp(L)¼p(L)p(L¼N) (1)

since we assume that the two surfaces are surface segments of

larger objects that are fully surrounded by the particles. There-

fore at large separations, the overall forces exerted by the

particles are zero.

The effective, particle-mediated adhesion potential V

of the

surfaces is obtained by integration over the excess pressure

Dp(L):

Fig. 1 Monte Carlo snapshot for the surface separation L¼10dwhere dis the diameter of the particles. The particles repel each other, but are attracted

by the surfaces. In this snapshot, the chemical potential of the particles is m¼12.32kT, which corresponds to a bulk concentration of X

¼0.01/d

the particles away from the surfaces. The binding energy U¼10kT of the particles at the surfaces leads to an area concentration of X

¼0.42/d

of the

particles in the adsorption layers.

Fig. 2 The particle–surface interaction potential V

depends on the

distance zof the particle center from the surface. The interaction

potential attains its minimum value Uat the separation z¼0.5dat

which the spherical particle is in contact with the surface. The depth U>

0 of the minimum is the binding energy of the particle with the surface.

The potential is composed of a soft repulsive and a Yukawa-like

attractive term (see eqn (12) and (13) in the Appendix section for details).

Fig. 3 Bulk concentration X

versus chemical potential mof the particles

in our model (data points). At small values of X

and m, the two quantities

are related via ln(d

)x7.8kT +m(dashed line).

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Vef ðLÞ¼ð

DpL0dL0(2)

In Fig. 4, the excess pressure Dp(L) and the effective adhesion

potential V

(L) are shown for the binding energy U¼10kT and

chemical potential m¼12.32kT, which corresponds to a bulk

concentration X

¼0.01/d

of the particles. The effective adhe-

sion potential exhibits a minimum value U

at surface sepa-

rations Lclose to the diameter dof the particles since the particles

can bind to both surfaces at this separation. The depth U

of this

minimum corresponds to the effective, particle-mediated adhe-

sion energy of the surfaces. At surface separations Laround 1.6d,

the effective adhesion potential V

has a local maximum because

particles can no longer bind to both surfaces, and because

particles that bind to one of the surfaces sterically obstruct the

binding of particles to the other surface (see Fig. 5 and 6). This

maximum of height U

constitutes a barrier for adhesion. At

larger surface separations LT3d, the effective potential V

decays to zero because the particles adsorb independently on the

two surfaces.

A characteristic feature of the effective, particle-mediated

adhesion energy U

is that it exhibits a maximum at an inter-

mediate value m¼m* of the chemical potential (see Fig. 7). With

increasing binding energy Uof the particles, the location of this

maximum is shifted to smaller values of the chemical potential

(see Fig. 8) and, thus, to smaller bulk concentrations X

of the

particles. In the following, we will show that the maximum of the

function U

(m) can be understood from the adsorption isotherms

and adsorption free energies of the particles. Our starting point is

the surface concentration of adsorbed particles considered in the

next section.

4. Surface concentrations of particles

The surface concentrations of the particles in the adsorption

layers can be calculated from the concentration profiles X(z)of

the particles between the surfaces (see Fig. 6). Here, zis the

Cartesian coordinate perpendicular to the two surfaces, which

are located at z¼0 and z¼L. For large surface separations LT

3d, the particle concentration X(z) has two pronounced peaks

Fig. 4 (a) Excess pressure Dpexerted by the particles and (b) effective,

particle-mediated adhesion potential V

of the surfaces as functions of

the surface separation Lin units of the particle diameter d. In this

example, the binding energy of the particles is U¼10kT and the chemical

potential is m¼12.32kT, which corresponds to a bulk particle

concentration of X

¼0.01/d

. The dots in subfigure (a) represent the

Monte Carlo data, and the line results from interpolation. The effective

potential V

in subfigure (b) is obtained from the excess pressure Dp via

integration. The effective potential exhibits a minimum at a surface

separation close to the particle diameter at which the particles are firmly

bound to both surfaces. The depth U

of the potential minimum is the

effective binding of the surfaces. Because of the entropy of the confined

particles, the minimum is located at a surface separation slightly larger

than the separation L¼dwhere the total binding energy to both surfaces

is minimal for a particle. In this example, the minimum is located at Lx

1.01d, and the effective binding energy is U

x4.20kT/d

. The effective

potential exhibits a barrier of height U

at intermediate separations at

which particles that bind to one of the surfaces obstruct the binding of

particles to the other surface. In this example, the barrier is located at

Lx1.60dand has the height U

x0.83kT/d

Fig. 5 Monte Carlo snapshots at the surface separations L¼3d, 1.6d,

and dfor the same parameters as in Fig. 4.

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with maxima at z-values close to 0.5dand L0.5dwhere the

particle–surface interaction potential V

is minimal. These two

peaks correspond to the single layers of adsorbed particles at the

two surfaces (see Fig. 5 and 6). At intermediate z-values in the

range d<z<Ldbetween the two peaks, the particle

concentration Xtends towards the bulk concentration X

because the particle–surface potential V

is practically 0 for

these z-values, and because packing effects of the particles

between the surfaces are negligible for the bulk concentrations X

< 0.1d

considered here. For surface separations Lclose to the

binding separation d, the concentration profile X

has a single

peak that corresponds to a single layer of particles bound to both

surfaces. The surface concentration X

of particles in the

adsorption layers is obtained by integration over the peaks in the

concentration profiles X(z):

Xs¼ð

XðzÞdz(3)

For large surface separations, the surface concentration X

defined in eqn (3) is the area concentration of the single layer of

particles adsorbed to one of the surfaces. For the surface

Fig. 6 Concentration profiles X(z) of the particles between the surfaces

for the same surface separations Land parameters as in Fig. 5. The two

peaks in the profiles for L¼3dand L¼1.6dcorrespond to the single

layers of particles adsorbed at the two surfaces. The peaks at the sepa-

ration L¼1.6dare lower in height than the peaks at L¼3dbecause

particles that bind to one of the surfaces sterically obstruct the binding of

particles to the other surface at this separation (see the snapshot in Fig. 5

for L¼1.6d). The single peak in the concentration profile at the sepa-

ration L¼dcorresponds to a layer of particles bound to both surfaces.

Fig. 7 Effective, particle-mediated binding energy U

of the surfaces as

a function of the chemical potential mfor the binding energies U¼8, 10,

and 12kT of the particles. The effective binding energy U

exhibits a

maximum at intermediate values of the chemical potential. The points

represent the Monte Carlo data, and the lines the simple model based on

eqn (5).

Fig. 8 Values m* of the chemical potential at which the effective binding

energy U

of the surfaces is maximal versus binding energy Uof the

particles. The data points result from an interpolation of Monte Carlo

data for U

as a function of m(see e.g. data points in Fig. 7). The line

results from eqn (7) of the simple model with the fit function for the

adsorption isotherm X

(m+U

) indicated as a dashed line in Fig. 9(b).

The simple model is in good agreement with the Monte Carlo results for

particle binding energies U$7kT, but deviates at smaller binding

energies.

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separation L¼d, the surface concentration X

is the area

concentration of the particles that are bound to both surfaces.

In Fig. 9(a), the surface concentration X

is shown as a func-

tion of the chemical potential mat the binding separation L¼dof

the surfaces and at the large surface separation L¼10d, for the

three binding energies U¼8, 10, and 12kT of the particles. The

area concentration X

increases with mand with the binding

energy Uof the particles, and is significantly larger at the surface

separation L¼dbecause the particles bind to both surfaces.

When plotted as a function of m+U

with U

¼Ufor large L

and U

¼2Ufor L¼d, the six curves of Fig. 9(a) fall onto a

single curve (see Fig. 9(b)), which indicates (i) that the surface

concentration X

depends on the sum of the chemical potential

and binding energy of the particles, and (ii) that the binding

energy at the surface separation L¼dis approximately twice the

binding energy at large separations, which is plausible since the

particles bind to both surfaces at this separation. The small

deviations between the curves in Fig. 9(b) presumably result from

small differences in the entropies of bound particles at L¼dand

at large L, which appear to be negligible compared to the binding

energies, at least for the binding energies Umuch larger than the

thermal energy kT considered here. Because of the soft repulsive

interactions of the particles, the surface concentration X

does

not saturate at large values of m+U

. A scaling argument

indicates that X

increases proportional to (m+U

)

1/6

for large

values of m+U

at which the adsorbed particles are arranged in a

hexagonal lattice (see Appendix).

The surface concentration X

of the particles at large surface

separation determines the height U

of the barrier in the effec-

tive potential V

. In Fig. 10, the barrier height U

of the

effective potential is shown as a function of this surface

concentration for the three binding energies U¼8, 10, and 12kT

of the particles. The values of X

here correspond to the values in

Fig. 9(a) at the large surface separation L¼10d. For a given

binding energy U, different values of X

in Fig. 10 result from

different values of the chemical potential mof the particles. The

three curves shown in Fig. 10 fall onto a single curve since the

steric interactions between the two adsorbed layers of particles

that lead to the potential barrier only depend on the concentra-

tions of the particles in these layers.

5. Adsorption free energies

In the grand-canonical ensemble, particle concentrations can be

expressed as derivatives of the grand-canonical potential, or ‘‘free

energy’’ with respect to the chemical potential m. The concen-

tration profile X(z) thus can be related to a z-dependent grand-

canonical potential f(z)via X(z)¼vf(z)/vm, and the surface

concentrations X

defined in eqn (3) can be associated with a

surface potential, or ‘‘free energy’’ of adsorption f

. In the

previous section, we have shown that the surface concentrations

at the surface separation L¼dand at large separations

depend in good approximation on a single parameter, the

rescaled chemical potential m+U

with U

¼2Ufor L¼dand

Fig. 9 (a) Surface concentration X

of particles in the adsorption layers

as a function of the chemical potential mat the large surface separation

L¼10d(three bottom lines) and at the binding separation L¼dat which

the particles strongly bind to both surfaces. At both separations, the

surface concentration X

increases with the chemical potential mand with

the binding energy Uof the particles. (b) Same surface concentrations X

as a function of the rescaled chemical potential m+U

with U

¼Ufor

L¼10dand U

¼2Ufor L¼d. In this rescaled plot, the six curves of

subfigure (a) fall onto a single curve. The dashed line represents a 9

order polynomial fit to the Monte Carlo data (see Appendix).

Fig. 10 Height U

of the barrier in the effective potential V

as a

function of the surface concentration X

of adsorbed particles at the large

surface separation L¼10dfor the binding energies U¼8, 10, and 12kT

of the particles.

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