Self-Assembly in Two-Dimensions of Colloidal Particles at Liquid Mixtures

The aim of this work is to simulate the formation of colloidal rings, circular clusters, and voids induced by oily lenses at the air−water interface. The presence of two liquids with different surface tension leads to the formation of a nonhomogeneous interface. In this case, the total interaction potential is assumed to be composed of only two terms; the first one is due to the (repulsive) pairwise dipolar force between partly immersed charged microspheres, whereas the second depends on the position of the particle at the interface and is connected to the interfacial stress caused by the difference of surface tension between both liquids. This simple potential is able to reproduce the experimental rings, circular clusters and voids found by different authors.