An experimental/theoretical method to measure the capacitive compactness of an aqueous electrolyte surrounding a spherical charged colloid Article uri icon

abstract

  • The capacitive compactness has been introduced very recently [G. I. Guerrero-García et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 20, 262-275 (2018)] as a robust and accurate measure to quantify the thickness, or spatial extension, of the electrical double layer next to either an infinite charged electrode or a spherical macroion. We propose here an experimental/theoretical scheme to determine the capacitive compactness of a spherical electrical double layer that relies on the calculation of the electrokinetic charge and the associated mean electrostatic potential at the macroparticle%27s surface. This is achieved by numerically solving the non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann equation of point ions around a colloidal sphere and matching the corresponding theoretical mobility, predicted by the O%27Brien and White theory [J. Chem. Soc., Faraday Trans. 2 74, 1607-1626 (1978)], with experimental measurements of the electrophoretic mobility under the same conditions. This novel method is used to calculate the capacitive compactness of NaCl and CaCl2 electrolytes surrounding a negatively charged polystyrene particle as a function of the salt concentration. © 2018 Author(s).
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publication date

  • 2018-01-01