Cluster discrimination in electrostatic heteroaggregation processes

Electrostatic heteroaggregation processes arising in 1:1 mixtures of oppositely charged microspheres at low and very low electrolyte concentrations were investigated by means of single-cluster light scattering. Cluster discrimination, i.e., the fact that clusters differing by only one constituent particle behave quite differently, was found for monomers and dimers. This effect was recently predicted by Brownian dynamic simulations but, to the best of our knowledge, not yet confirmed by experiments. The experimental data were confronted with the simulations and a good qualitative and quantitative agreement was obtained. The origin of the cluster discrimination phenomenon could be related to the range of the attractive electrostatic interactions.