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Strong-field electrophoresis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2012

Ory Schnitzer
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel
Ehud Yariv*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel
*
Email address for correspondence: udi@technion.ac.il

Abstract

We analyse particle electrophoresis in the thin-double-layer limit for asymptotically large applied electric fields. Specifically, we consider fields scaling as , being the dimensionless Debye thickness. The dominant advection associated with the intense flow mandates a uniform salt concentration in the electro-neutral bulk. The large tangential fields in the diffuse part of the double layer give rise to a novel ‘surface conduction’ mechanism at moderate zeta potentials, where the Dukhin number is vanishingly small. The ensuing electric current emerging from the double layer modifies the bulk electric field; the comparable transverse salt flux, on the other hand, is incompatible with the nil diffusive fluxes at the homogeneous bulk. This contradiction is resolved by identifying the emergence of a diffusive boundary layer of thickness, resembling thermal boundary layers at large-Reynolds-number flows. The modified electric field within the bulk gives rise to an irrotational flow, resembling those in moderate-field electrophoresis. At leading order, the particle electrophoretic velocity is provided by Smoluchowski’s formula, describing linear variation with applied field.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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