Depletion forces acting on nanoparticles in confined polymer systems: potential theory.

By making use of the developed potential theory, we investigate the polymer-mediated depletion interactions between nanoparticles and hard planar surfaces in the following settings: (i) interaction between two nanoparticles; (ii) interactions between nanoparticle and hard planar surface; (iii) interaction between two nanoparticles in the presence of hard planar surface; and (iv) interaction between nanoparticle and walls of the plane-parallel slab. For each of the listed systems, we have calculated the polymer end density, excess grand potential, and the potential of the depletion forces. On the basis of the obtained results, we have analyzed the effect of the geometric constraints imposed by hard walls on the polymer density structure and the depletion interaction between nanoparticles.