0000000000008674
AUTHOR
Norbert Garbow
Electrophoresis of model colloidal spheres in low salt aqueous suspension
We report on comprehensive measurements of the electrophoretic mobility μ of a highly charged spherical colloid in deionized or low salt aqueous suspensions, where fluid and crystalline order develops with increased packing fraction Φ. We propose the existence of a 'universal' shape of the μ(Φ) showing three distinct regimes: a logarithmic increase, a plateau and a logarithmic decrease. The position and the height of the plateau are found to be influenced by the particle surface properties and the electrolyte concentration. In particular, it starts once the counter-ion concentration becomes equal to the concentration of background electrolyte. This coincides only loosely with the range of Φ…
High-resolution particle sizing by optical tracking of single colloidal particles
Abstract The motion of individual Brownian particles is observed using the confocal Tracking Microscope recently introduced by Schatzel (K. Schatzel, W. G. Neumann, J. Muller and B. Materzok, App. Opt. 31 (1992) 770–778). Particles are laterally trapped in a strongly focused laser beam. By evaluating the light-pressure-induced drift velocity and the backscattered intensity we are able to detemine particle size histograms with a resolution better than 2%. This is demonstrated on a mixture of seven species of polystyrene latex spheres in the diameter range between 300 and 450 nm, where six classes of diameters are identified. We discuss the scope of the method and potential applications.
Electrophoretic mobility of charged spheres
The electrophoretic mobility μ of charged 0.3 µm Polystyrene spheres suspended in water was measured over a wide range of salt concentrations c and packing fractions Φ. To observe isolated spheres at packing fractions Φ ≤ 2 × 10−7 a newly developed optical tweezing electrophoresis (OTE) apparatus was used. At deionised conditions μ=2.5 × 10−8 m2V−1s−1, it decreases further upon increasing the salt concentration c. Measurements at larger Φ generally show much larger μ and a qualitatively different dependence on c. At no added salt μ increases in the unordered state but a saturation at μ=6.8 × 10−8 m2V−1s−1 is observed, as the system develops fluid order. The fluid-crystal phase transition is…
Optical tweezing electrophoresis of isolated, highly charged colloidal spheres
Abstract We report on a novel optical tweezing experiment measuring the electrophoretic mobility μ of highly charged spherical particles suspended in water at volume fractions Φ≤2×10 −7 . At deionised conditions μ =2.5×10 −8 m 2 V −1 s −1 , it decreases further upon increasing the salt concentration c . We compare our data to measurements at larger Φ, where generally much larger μ and a qualitatively different dependence on the salt concentration are observed. To characterise the dependence on Φ we performed measurements at no added salt. There the mobility increases in the unordered state but stays constant at μ =6.8×10 −8 m 2 V −1 s −1 as the system develops fluid order. In the ordered re…
On the electrophoretic mobility of isolated colloidal spheres
We studied the electrophoretic mobility μ of highly charged colloidal spheres in very dilute low salt aqueous suspension. We combined experiments on individual particles and ensemble averaged measurements. In both cases μ was observed to be independent of particle size and surface chemistry. Corresponding effective charges Zμ*, however, scaled with the ratio of particle size to Bjerrum length λB: Zμ* = Aa/λB with a coefficient . Our results are discussed in comparison to other charge determination experiments and charge renormalization theory and with respect to the issue of charge polydispersity.