Effect of stress-jump condition on electrophoretic behavior of a spherical dispersion of soft particles

Abstract

The electrophoresis of a concentrated dispersion of soft particles, where a particle comprises a rigid core and an ion-penetrable membrane layer, is modeled theoretically, taking the effect of double-layer polarization into account. In particular, the influence of a stress-jump condition of the flow field at the membrane layer–liquid interface on the electrophoretic mobility of a particle is investigated. The type of particles considered mimic biocolloids, such as cells and microorganisms, and inorganic colloids covered by an artificial polymer layer such as surfactant molecules. A unit cell model is adopted to simulate the present spherical dispersion, and the governing equations and the associated boundary conditions are solved by a pseudo-spectral method based on Chebyshev polynomials. We show that while the stress-jump condition, characterized by a stress-jump coefficient, can have a significant influence on the mobility of a particle, the associated flow field is not influenced appreciably. Also, the influence of the stress-jump condition on the mobility of a particle depends largely on the nature of the membrane layer, characterized by its friction coefficient.