Calculation of the Electrophoretic Mobility of a Spherical Colloid Particle
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JOUI~NziL OF COLLOID £ND INTERFACE SCIENCE 9.2, 78--99 (1966) Calculation of the Electrophoretic Mobility of a Spherical Colloid Particle P. H. WIERSEMA, A. L. LOEB, AXD J. TH. G. OVERBEEK Van't Hoff Laboratory, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. Ledgemont Laboratory, Kennecott Copper Corporation, Lexington, Massachusetts Received May 3, 1965 ABSTRACT A new calculation of the relation between the electrophoretic mobility and the/-- potential of a spherical colloid particle is presented. The model consists of a rigid, electrically insulating sphere surrounded by a Gouy-Chapman double layer. The ap- propriate differential equations (which account for both electrophoretic retardation and relaxation effect) have been solved without approximations on an IBM 704 com- puter. The theoretical assumptions and the basic equations ~re stated. A detailed account of the solutions of the equations is pub]ished elsewhere. The present paper contains the complete results. Comparison of these results with those of Overbeek ~nd of Booth shows that, %r high ~--potential ~nd 0.2 < ~a < 50, their approximations gen- erally overestimate the relaxation effect. The application to practical cases (espe- cially colloid particles in solutions of 1-1 electrolytes) is discussed extensively. Finally, the theoretical results are compared with experimental data published by others. INTRODUCTION particle, it is valid only when ~a }> 1, The calculation of the ~-potential from where a is the radius of the particle and measurements of the electrophoretic mobil- is the reciprocal thickness of the surround- ity (E.M.) requires a theoretical relation ing ionic atmosphere. For moderate values between the two quantities. The oldest of ~a (say, 0.2 < ~a < 50), the so-called relation of this kind, which was derived by relaxation effect leads to important correc- yon Helmholtz (1) and improved by yon tions, which increase with increasing /'- Smoluchowski (2), reads potential. This was found by Overbeek (5) and, independently, by Booth (6). Both U e~ authors expressed the E.M. as a power series X - 4~" [1] in the ~-potential; however, because of mathematical complications they were able In this equation, U is the electrophoretie to calculate only a few terms of the series. velocity, X is the strength of the applied Quantitative validity of their results could d.-c. field (U/X is the electrophoretic therefore be claimed only for small ~'-poten- mobility); e and ~ represent the dielectric rials (~ < 25 my.). constant and the viscosity coefficient, The results of a more general calculation, respectively, of the solution surrounding which was carried out by means of an IBM the colloid particles. 704 digital computer, will be presented in More recent work by Hiiokel (3), Henry this paper. The physical assumptions, which (4), Overbeek (5), and Booth (6) has shown are the same as those used in the work of that the validity of Eq. [1] is rather re- Overbeek (5), are as follows: stricted. In the case of a spherical colloid a. The interaction between colloid par- 78 ELECTROPHORETIC MOBILITY OF A SPHERICAL COLLOID PARTICLE 79 X u // // ii / k 3 / - II ~ kI=QX \\\ \ \ / FIa. 1. Forces in eleetrophoresis. The dotted line represents the ionic atmosphere. tides is neglected and only a single particle particle is neglected. (The order of magni- is considered. tude of this effect has been estimated by b. This particle (plus the adjacent layer means of a calculation that was published of liquid that remains stationary with re- elsewhere (Ta)). spect to it) is treated as a rigid sphere. This paper is written for readers who are c. The dielectric constant is supposed to primarily interested in results and applica- be the same everywhere in the sphere. tions. Therefore, the mathematical problem d. The electric conductivity of the sphere will just be stated here. The analytical and is assumed to be zero. This implies that the numerical methods that were used in solv- charge within the surface of shear does not ing the problem can be found elsewhere move with respect to the particle when the (7a-9). d.c. field is applied. e. The charge of the sphere is supposed STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM to be uniformly distributed on the surface. In the remainder of this paper, the col- f. The mobile part of the electric double loid particle plus the adjacent layer of liquid layer is described by the classical Gouy- is called "the sphere." The electric charge Chapman theory. of the sphere is assumed positive; consistent g. The dielectric constant of the liquid sign reversal makes the results applicable surrounding the sphere is assumed to be in- to a negatively charged particle. dependent of position. Let us first consider the forces acting on h. Only one type of positive and one type the sphere when it is in uniform electro- of negative ions are considered to be present phoretic motion (Fig. 1). The force exerted in the ionic atmosphere. by the d.c. field, X, on the charge, Q, of the i. The viscosity coefficient of the liquid sphere is surrounding the sphere is supposed to be kl = QX. [2] independent of position. j. Because colloidal solutions follow The second force is the Stokes friction, Ohm's law at the moderate field strengths (a ks = --6v~aU, [3] few volts per centimeter) that are employed in electrophoresis experiments, only terms where ~ is the viscosity coefficient of the that are linear in the field are taken into liquid surrounding the sphere, U is the elec- account in the computation. trophoretic velocity, and a is the radius of /~. The Brownian motion of the colloid the sphere (i.e., the distance from the center 80 WIERSEMA, LOEB, AND OVEP~BEEK of the colloid particle to the surface of where dA is an element of the surface of shear). shear; ~ is the surface charge density de- The two remaining forces are caused by fined by 4¢a2~ = Q (where Q includes both the "ionic atmosphere." The d.c. field exerts the particle charge and other charges that on the ions in this atmosphere a force which may be bound within the surface of shear); is transferred to the solvent molecules. and h is the total electric potential caused The resulting flow of solvent causes a re- by the charges on the sphere and in the tarding force, ks, on the sphere (electro- liquid and by the external field. Hence, phoretic retardation). Furthermore, in the --VA is the total electric force on a unit stationary state which is present shortly charge. In Eq. [6], the subscript a denotes after the application of the d.c. field, the that we take the force at the surface of center of the ionic atmosphere lags behind shear, and x specifies the component of this the center of the particle. This causes an force in the direction of the d.c. field. electrical force, k4, on the particle, which is, The total hydrodynamic force can be ex- in most cases, also a retarding one (relaxa- pressed as tion effect). The two effects symbolized by k8 and k4 + = ff p~ dA, [7] are the same as those defined in the Debye- Hiickel theory of the conductivity of strong where p~ is the stress on an element of the electrolytes (10). In the latter theory, no surface of shear in the direction of the d.c. important error results when the two effects field. This stress is a rather complicated are superimposed linearly; for colloidal function of u, the velocity of the liquid particles the mutual interactions between with respect to the center of the sphere, and the effects are considerable. In this case, of p, the hydrostatic pressure in the liquid. ks must be calculated for an asymmetric It appears that more explicit expressions atmosphere and in the evaluation of k4 for the forces (and hence, for U) can be found the velocity distribution in the liquid must when A, u, and p are known as functions be taken into account explicitly. of position. The functions are governed by a In the stationary state the sum of all set of differential equations that will be forces acting on the particle is zero: given here without derivations, l~ore de- tails concerning these equations can be kl+k2+ k~+ k4 = 0. [4] found in the publications of Henry (4), Equations [2]-[4] can be combined to give Overbeek (5), and Booth (6), and in refer- ences 7a and 8. U - 1 (QX + k~ -~ k~). [5] In the formulation of the differential 67rya equations and boundary conditions, the center of the sphere is considered as the The forces k~ and k4 are functions of the origin of the coordinate system. ~-potential and of several other parameters, The total electric potential, A, which in- such as the radius of the sphere and the cludes the external d.c. field, is governed charges, concentrations, and mobilities of by Poisson's equation: the ions in the double layer. Because these other parameters are known in most cases, V2A = 4~__pp = 4~e (z+~+ -- z-v-) [8] the relation between U and f can be found by calculation of the forces ka and k4. As a starting point, we shall write down where p is the space-charge density in the expressions for the total electrical force, liquid, e is the dielectric constant of the kl + k~, and for the total hydrodynamic liquid, e is the elementary charge, z=~ are force, k2 + k3. The first expression reads: the valences of the ions, and ~ are their local concentrations (number/era)). It is essential that ~+ and v_ are not bulk concen- h~ ÷ k~ = ff ~(--VA)o~ dA, [6] trations and not equilibrium concentrations, ELECTROPHORETIC MOBILITY OF A SPHERICAL COLLOID PARTICLE 81 but ion concentrations in the distorted at- the left-hand side is the sum of the forces mosphere; by the introduction of these acting on a volume element of the liquid.