Steric effect of water molecule clusters on electrostatic interaction and electroosmotic transport in aqueous electrolytes: A mean-field approach

oleh: Jun-Sik Sin, Yong-Man Jang, Chol-Ho Kim, Hyon-Chol Kim

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: AIP Publishing LLC 2018-10-01

Deskripsi

We theoretically study the size effect of water molecule clusters not only on electrostatic interaction between two charged surfaces in an aqueous electrolyte but also on electroosmotic transport in a nanofluidic channel. Applying a free energy based mean-field approach accounting for different sizes of ions and water molecule clusters, we derive a set of coupled equations to compute electrostatic and electroosmotic properties between charged surfaces. We verify that the smaller the size of a water cluster, the stronger the electroosmotic transport in nanofluidic channels. In addition, we find that an increase in size of a water cluster yields a decrease in electrostatic interaction strength between similar or oppositely charged planar surfaces.