화학공학소재연구정보센터
Langmuir, Vol.18, No.12, 4572-4583, 2002
Electrophoretic mobility and electric conductivity of suspensions of charge-regulating colloidal spheres
An analytical study of electrophoresis and electric conduction in a monodisperse suspension of spherical charge-regulating particles with an arbitrary thickness of the electric double layers is presented. The charge regulation due to association/dissociation reactions of ionogenic functional groups on the particle surface is approximated by a linearized regulation model, which specifies a linear relationship between the surface charge density and the surface potential. The effects of particle interactions are taken into account by employing a unit cell model, and the overlap of the double layers of adjacent particles is allowed. The electrokinetic equations that govern the electric potential profile, the ionic concentration distributions, and the fluid flow field in the electrolyte solution surrounding the particle in a unit cell are linearized assuming that the system is only slightly distorted from equilibrium. Using a regular perturbation method, these linearized equations are solved with the equilibrium surface potential of the particle as the small perturbation parameter. Closed-form formulas for the electrophoretic mobility of the charge-regulating spheres and for the electric conductivity of the suspension are derived. Our results indicate that the charge regulation effects on the electrophoretic mobility and the effective conductivity appear starting from the leading order of the equilibrium surface potential, which depends on the regulation characteristics of the suspension, and are quite sensitive to the boundary condition for the electric potential specified at the outer surface of the unit cell.