Attractions between charged colloids at water interfaces

The effective potential between charged colloids trapped at water interfaces is analysed. It consists of a repulsive electrostatic and an attractive capillary part which asymptotically both show dipole-like behaviour. For sufficiently large colloid charges, the capillary attraction dominates at large separations. The total effective potential exhibits a minimum at intermediate separations if the Debye screening length of water and the colloid radius are of comparable size.