doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2004.12.014
Copyright © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Electrophoresis of a rigid sphere in a Carreau fluid normal to a planar surface
Eric Leea, Chi-Tien Chena and Jyh-Ping Hsub,
, 
aDepartment of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 10617
bDepartment of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National ILan University, I-Lan, Taiwan 26041
Received 15 October 2004;
accepted 6 December 2004.
Available online 26 January 2005.
References and further reading may be available for this article. To view references and further reading you must
purchase this article.
Abstract
The boundary effect on electrophoresis is investigated by considering the electrophoresis of a spherical particle in a non-Newtonian fluid normal to a planar surface under conditions of low surface potential and weak applied electric field. The Carreau model, which is widely used for the description of polymeric fluids of shear-thinning nature, is adopted to simulate the non-Newtonian behavior of the fluid. We show that, in general, shear thinning has the effect of raising the electrophoretic mobility of a particle. The thinner the double layer, the more significant this effect is, and, since the presence of the planar surface has the effect of enhancing the shear-thinning effect, the closer a particle is to the planar surface, the larger is its mobility. Both the shear rate and the viscosity of the fluid vary most significantly in the gap between the particle and the planar surface, and the maximal shear rate and the minimal viscosity occur on the particle surface.
Keywords: Electrophoresis; Boundary effect; Sphere normal to plane; Non-Newtonian fluid; Carreau model
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the problem considered. A particle of radius a moves with velocity U, the direction of which depends on its charge, normal to a planar surface as a response to a uniform applied electric field Ez in the z-direction. h is the distance between the center of the particle and the plane. The bispherical coordinates (ξ,η,φ) are adopted, where η=0 and η=η0 represent respectively the plane and the particle surface.
Fig. 2. Spatial variation of scaled shear rate
for different combinations of n and λ* for the case when η0=1.0 and κa=10: (a) n=0.9 and λ*=1.0; (b) n=0.8 and λ*=1.2.
Fig. 3. Spatial variation of scaled viscosity μ* for the case of Fig. 2.
Fig. 4. Variation of scaled mobility
as a function of κa at various n for the case when η0=1.0: (a) λ*=0.5; (b) λ*=1.0.
Fig. 5. Variation of scaled mobility
as a function of κa at various λ* for the case when η0=1.0: (a) n=0.9; (b) n=0.8.
Fig. 6. Variation of scaled mobility
as a function of κa at various η0 for the case when n=0.9 and λ*=1.0.
Fig. 7. Variation of percentage difference in scaled mobility, PD
as a function of κa at various η0 for the case when n=0.9 and λ*=1.0.