The deposition morphology of particles onto a spherical collector is investigated by applying the Brownian dynamics simulation method in the present paper. The effect of various types of the total interaction energy curves of DLVO theory, and of the shadow area cast by those deposited particles, on the particles' collection efficiencies are examined. The simulation results show that the collection efficiency is always higher when the particle's Brownian motion behavior is taken into consideration. As the deposition location moves closer to the front stagnation point of the collector, the dendrites formed by those Brownian particles also contain more particles. The present simulation method successfully describes the amount of particles collected as well as the morphology of the deposits in a detailed step-by-step manner. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.