Simulation of suspensions at the mesoscopic scale is a tool still under development, but which has an important potential in the field of ceramic processes using the colloidal route. These simulations are indeed an asset to better understand the interactions between the different particles present in the suspensions allowing to adapt the formulations by limiting the experiments which can sometimes be long and expensive.

For several years, Brownian dynamics simulations have been developed at the IRCER. These simulations, which allow to follow the trajectory of colloidal particles within a suspension, have for example allowed to better understand the role of interactions on the aggregation and organization of oxide particles in water^1,2,3. In these simulations, particles of the same nature are considered as spherical particles of the same size. However, experimentally, the particles always present a dispersion in size. This is why, in this study, it is proposed to analyze the effect of the introduction of a particle size distribution in the simulations.

Particular attention will be paid to the effect of the dispersion on the organization of the aggregates and more specifically on the possibility of obtaining colloidal crystals. It will be shown that depending on the interaction potentials used in the simulations, the size effects can be different and that has to be carefully examined depending on the situations.

1) M. Cerbelaud et al., Langmuir 24 , 3001 (2008)
2) M. Piechowiak et al., Langmuir 26 , 12540 (2010)
3) A. Laganapan at al., J. Colloid Interface Sci. 458, A241(2015)