Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, Hohe Str. 6, D-01069 Dresden, Germany

By developing and making use of the novel potential theory, we investigate several important cases of the polymer mediated interaction between spherical colloids in the colloid-polymer-solvent mixtures. In the first case study, we discuss the calculation of the polymer-mediated interaction potential acting between nano-particle colloids with the many-body effects taken into account. In addition, we study the potential of the polymer-mediated interaction between nano-colloids in the presence of hard walls, which allows us to thoroughly investigate the effect of confinement on the depletion interactions. In a separate case study, we investigate the polymer mediated interaction between colloids that bear irreversibly adsorbed polymer layers. As a final stage of the reported work, we perform thorough comparison of the presented theoretical findings with the available experimental data and simulations.