Colloid vibration potential in a concentrated suspension of spherical colloidal particles

A relation between the dynamic electrophoretic mobility of spherical colloidal particles in a concentrated suspension and the colloid vibration potential (CVP) generated in the suspension by a sound wave is obtained from the analogy with the corresponding Onsager relation between electrophoretic mobility and sedimentation potential in concentrated suspensions previously derived on the basis of Kuwabara's cell model. The obtained expression for CVP is applicable to the case where the particle zeta potential is low, the particle relative permittivity is very small, and the overlapping of the electrical double layers of adjacent particles is negligible. It is found that CVP shows much stronger dependence on the particle volume fraction phi than predicted from the phi dependence of the dynamic electrophoretic mobility. It is also suggested that the same relation holds between the electrokinetic sonic amplitude of a concentrated suspension of spherical colloidal particles and the dynamic electrophoretic mobility. (C) 1999 Academic Press.