Separation of nanocolloids driven by dielectrophoresis: A molecular dynamics simulation |
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Authors: | ZhongHua Ni XinJie Zhang Hong Yi |
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Affiliation: | (1) Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Design and Manufacture of Micro/Nano Biomedical Instruments, School of Mechanical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China |
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Abstract: | The nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) method was used to model the nanocolloids and the solvent particles. By introducing
a non-uniform electric field, colloids were polarized to have opposite polarities. Separation of colloids driven by dielectrophoresis
(DEP) could be seen clearly under a strong electric field at low temperatures. Analyzing the ratio of DEP velocities of colloids
to thermal velocities of neutral solvent particles showed that when the ratio was correspondingly big, collision between colloids
and solvent particles would be intense, making the DEP velocity of colloids fluctuate frequently. By changing the electric
field strength, it was found that the enhancement of electric field strength would quicken the separation of colloids. But
when the electric field strength increased to a certain degree, the separation motion would be slow because of the strong
friction resistance of the solvent particles to the colloids. Moreover, studying the separation reason of colloids based on
the potential energy showed that after colloids were polarized, the attractive potential energy among the colloids would be
weaker than before, while the increase of temperature would reduce the attractive potential energy and increase the repulsive
potential energy, which accorded with the DLVO theory.
Supported by the National Hi-Tech Research and Derelopment Program of China (“863” Project) (Grant No. 2006AA04Z351) and the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50675033, 30770553) |
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Keywords: | molecular dynamics dielectrophoresis DLVO theory |
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