Boundary effects on electrophoresis of a colloidal cylinder with a nonuniform zeta potential distribution

The electrophoretic motion of a long dielectric circular cylinder with a general angular distribution of its surface potential under a transversely imposed electric field in the vicinity of a large plane wall parallel to its axis is analyzed. The thickness of the electric double layers adjacent to the solid surfaces is assumed to be much smaller than the particle radius and the gap width between the surfaces, but the applied electric field can be either perpendicular or parallel to the plane wall. The presence of the confining wall causes three basic effects on the particle velocity: (1) the local electric field on the particle surface is enhanced or reduced by the wall; (2) the wall increases viscous retardation of the moving particle; (3) an electroosmotic flow of the suspending fluid may exist due to the interaction between the charged wall and the tangentially imposed electric field. Through the use of cylindrical bipolar coordinates, the Laplace and Stokes equations are solved analytically for the two-dimensional electric potential and velocity fields, respectively, in the fluid phase, and explicit formulas for the quasisteady electrophoretic and angular velocities of the cylindrical particle are obtained. To apply these formulas, one has only to calculate the multipole moments of the zeta potential distribution at the particle surface. It is found that the existence of a plane wall near a nonuniformly charged particle can cause its translation or rotation which does not occur in an unbounded fluid with the same applied electric field.

The electrophoretic motion of a long circular cylinder with a general angular distribution of its surface potential in the vicinity of a large plane wall parallel to its axis is analyzed in two fundamental cases: transverse electric fields applied normal to a conducting plane and parallel to a dielectric plane.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide