Faraday communications. Simple determination of the osmotic pressure of sterically stabilised colloids

Abstract

A simple, cheap and readily accessible method for determining the osmotic pressures of sterically stabilised dispersions is described. The principle of the technique is to allow the dispersion to equilibrate against a polymer solution of known osmotic pressure. Results have been obtained for homopolymers, ABA block copolymers and combpolymers adsorbed on polystyrene latex. The results are also presented as osmotic pressure vs. nearest-neighbour particle separation enabling a handle on the interparticle pair potential to be obtained.