Sedimentation of a charged colloidal sphere in a charged cavity

An analytical study is presented for the quasisteady sedimentation of a charged spherical particle located at the center of a charged spherical cavity. The overlap of the electric double layers is allowed, and the polarization (relaxation) effect in the double layers is considered. The electrokinetic equations that govern the ionic concentration distributions, electric potential profile, and fluid flow field in the electrolyte solution are linearized assuming that the system is only slightly distorted from equilibrium. Using a perturbation method, these linearized equations are solved for a symmetric electrolyte with the surface charge densities of the particle and cavity as the small perturbation parameters. An analytical expression for the settling velocity of the charged sphere is obtained from a balance among the gravitational, electrostatic, and hydrodynamic forces acting on it. Our results indicate that the presence of the particle charge reduces the magnitude of the sedimentation velocity of the particle in an uncharged cavity and the presence of the fixed charge at the cavity surface increases the magnitude of the sedimentation velocity of an uncharged particle in a charged cavity. For the case of a charged sphere settling in a charged cavity with equivalent surface charge densities, the net effect of the fixed charges will increase the sedimentation velocity of the particle. For the case of a charged sphere settling in a charged cavity with their surface charge densities in opposite signs, the net effect of the fixed charges in general reduces/increases the sedimentation velocity of the particle if the surface charge density of the particle has a greater/smaller magnitude than that of the cavity. The effect of the surface charge at the cavity wall on the sedimentation of a colloidal particle is found to increase with a decrease in the particle-to-cavity size ratio and can be significant in appropriate situations. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3663380]