Computer Simulations of Colloids and Macromolecules Aggregate Formation

Abstract

Understanding colloidal aggregate structures and formation is one of the central issues of colloid science and a very important topic in many industrial, biological, and environmental processes. The aim of this paper is to review and to describe the basic computational aggregation models of colloidal particles and macromolecules, and their developments. The scaling and fractal concepts allowing a quantitative description of the aggregate structure are introduced. The influence of aggregation mechanism on the structure of the resulting aggregates is also discussed. Because of the complexity of these mechanisms, computer simulations combined to experimental verifications is a powerful tool to investigate and understand aggregation processes in many applications.