An experimental study of the transport and capture of colloids in porous media by a chromatographic technique

Abstract

We present an experimental investigation of the transport and capture of model colloids in a well-defined porous medium. The experiments were performed using standard liquid chromatography equipment and involve detecting the passage of small impulses of monodisperse latex particles passing through a bed of monosize glass beads. Experiments were performed with three samples of monodisperse latex particles of diameters 226, 550 and 790 nm in carrier solutions with ionic strengths ranging from pure water up to 0.1 M at a pH of either 5.2 or 8 at flow velocities varying from 0.01 to 0.1 cm s −1. The results are presented as capture efficiency as a function of the various parameters and also in the form of Sherwood number vs Reynolds number for comparison with existing correlations of mass transfer. It is shown that capture is strongly influenced by hydrodynamics and the repulsive potential energy barrier.