Donnan potential and surface potential of a spherical soft particle in an electrolyte solution

A simple numerical method, which does not involve numerical integration of the Poisson–Boltzmann equations, is presented for obtaining the relationship between the Donnan potential and surface potential of a spherical soft particle (i.e., a polyelectrolyte-coated particle) in a symmetrical electrolyte solution. We assume that a soft particle consists of the particle core of radius a covered with an ion-penetrable surface layer of polyelectrolytes of thickness d and that ionized groups of valence Z are distributed at a uniform density of N in the polyelectrolyte layer and the relative permittivity takes the same value in the regions outside and inside the polyelectrolyte layer. The Donnan potential and surface potential are determined by the values of a, d, Z, N, and the Debye–Hückel parameter κ of the electrolyte solution. Numerical results obtained by the present method are in excellent agreement with exact results obtained by solving the nonlinear spherical Poisson–Boltzmann equations for the both regions inside and outside the polyelectrolyte layer.

Graphical abstractPotential distribution across a polyelectrolyte layer.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide