Effect of polymer-polymer interactions on the surface tension of colloid-polymer mixtures

The density profile and surface tension for the interface of phase-separated colloid-polymer mixtures have been studied in the framework of the square gradient approximation for both ideal and interacting polymers in good solvent. The calculations show that in the presence of polymer-polymer excluded volume interactions the interfaces have lower widths and surface tensions compared to the case of ideal polymers. These results are a direct consequence of the shorter range and smaller depth of the depletion potential between colloidal particles induced by interacting polymers. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.