Kinetics of charge heteroaggregation by Brownian dynamics simulation: role of the interaction potential profile

Brownian dynamics simulations of a system composed of positive and negative particles have been used to study the initial kinetics of heteroaggregation. The results are compared with experiments where clear deviations from the approximation developed by Hogg, Healy and Fuerstenau were found. The aim of this paper is to reproduce such deviations by computer simulation using different interaction potentials. Reasonable agreement between experiment and simulation partially validates those interaction potentials, although total accordance was never reached.