Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-soft-condensed-matter-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/1/b/solution

For an ideally dissociated electrolyte, the Debye–Hückel screening length is
Here is ionic number density, the charge in units of the elementary charge, and is molar concentration. Conversion between and number density cancels in a ratio. At fixed relative permittivity, .
In sodium chloride, , giving . Complete dissociation of aluminium chloride gives and , so
The factor is sixty, not ten: the squared charge and the three counterions per formula unit both matter. Using the given reference length directly, and , ,
The modest temperature increase raises the screening length by only about at fixed concentration; the large increase in ionic strength shortens it by almost an order of magnitude overall.
Under charge stabilization of colloids, the electrostatic double-layer repulsion now has a much shorter range. Attractive Van der Waals forces can then dominate at closer separations, reducing the barrier to particle aggregation in DLVO theory. Thus an electrostatically stabilized colloid is likely to be destabilized, with aggregation more likely than in the original dispersion.
This is a conditional physical prediction, not a proof of instability from a length alone. No particle radius, surface potential, attractive interaction strength or steric coating is specified. Steric stabilization could preserve stability, and trivalent-ion adsorption can alter the surface charge. Moreover, ideal screening theory is only an estimate at , where ion association, hydrolysis and activities can matter. The numerical result uses the supplied reference length and the stipulated unchanged permittivity, rather than replacing either with an unprovided calibration.

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