Colloidal interactions in thermal and athermal polymer solutions: The Derjaguin approximation, and exact results for mono- and polydisperse ideal chains
Polymer density functional theory is used to test the accuracy of the Derjaguin approximation in describing the interaction between two spherical colloidal particles immersed in a polymer solution. The density functional equations are solved numerically in a cylindrical geometry and thus a rigorous comparison is afforded, within the density functional framework. The density functional theory provi