“Opposites charges attract; like charges repel” is a fundamental principle of basic physics. However, a new study from Oxford University, recently published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, has demonstrated that similarly charged particles in solution can, in fact, attract each other over long distances.
Just as surprisingly, the team found that the effect is different for positively and negatively charged particles, depending on the solvent.
Besides overturning long-held beliefs, these results have immediate implications for a range of processes that involve interparticle and intermolecular interactions across various length-scales, including self-assembly, crystallization, and phase separation.
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