Influence of the volume fraction on the electrokinetic properties of maghemite nanoparticles in suspension

Abstract

We used several complementary experimental and theoretical tools to characterise the charge properties of well-defined maghemite nanoparticles in solution as a function of the volume fraction. The radius of the nanoparticles is equal to 6 nm. The structural charge was measured from chemical titration and was found high enough to expect some counterions to be electrostatically attracted to the surface, decreasing the apparent charge of the nanoparticle. Direct-current conductivity measurements were interpreted by an analytical transport theory to deduce the value of this apparent charge, denoted here by ‘dynamic effective charge’. This dynamic effective charge is found to decrease strongly with the volume fraction. In contrast, the ‘static’ effective charge, defined thanks to the Bjerrum criterion and computed from Monte Carlo simulations turns out to be almost independent of the volume fraction. In the range of Debye screening length and volume fraction investigated here, double layers around nanoparticles actually interact with each other. This strong interaction between nanocolloidal maghemite particles is probably responsible for the experimental dependence of the electrokinetic properties with the volume fraction.