Publication Type
Journal
Journal Name
The Journal of Chemical Physics
Publication Date
Page Number
144705
Volume
131
Issue
14
Abstract
A microscopic method is used to calculate the van der Waals forces between large nanocolloids. We assess the
reliability of some predictions derived from the most commonly used macroscopic method in practice, the
Dzyaloshinskii-Lifshitz-Pitaevskii (DLP) theory combined with the Derjaguin approximation, by calculating
them using the “coupled dipole method” (CDM). The CDM, which has demonstrated its ability to calculate
VDW interactions for small-nanoclusters, accounts for all many-body forces, and it does not assume a
continuous, homogeneous dielectric function in each material. It is shown that, out of three explored, one of the
routinely assumed properties (‘small-separation dominance’) of van der Waals forces predicted from the
macroscopic method is generally applicable for large spherical dielectric nanoclusters of diameter 16 nm
allowing much more efficient CDM calculations. The failure of two other routinely assumed properties, ‘infinite-
depth approximation’ and ‘sphere-cube analogy’, demonstrates that the effect of finite-size and shape is
important in nanocolloid systems even at the large size of 16nm.