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Brief Communications

Nature 402, 750 (16 December 1999) | doi:10.1038/45445

Colloidal particles: Origin of anomalous multibody interactions

Jeffrey J. Gray1, Benny Chiang1 & Roger T. Bonnecaze1

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In a numerical study, Bowen and Sharif1 purported to capture attractive interactions between like-charged colloidal particles by solving the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann equation around two particles in a pore. We are unable to replicate their results, in accord with recent proofs2, 3 showing that this equation cannot produce attractions between like-charged particles. Our calculations reveal only repulsive interactions between confined particles, indicating that the cause for anomalous colloidal multibody interactions is still unknown.