Mechanism of rectified lateral motion of particles near electrodes in alternating electric fields below 1 kHz.

A rectified electroosmotic flow mechanism and its expression in a quantitative model account for the net lateral motion of colloidal particles above a uniform planar electrode in an alternating electric field that drives a faradaic reaction on the electrode surface. Specific comparison to published particle doublet trajectories at 100 Hz in sodium hydroxide and sodium bicarbonate electrolytes demonstrates that the model quantitatively agrees with the experimental doublet trajectories when only independently measurable parameters are employed. This model reproduces the experimental signatures of the published particle pair motion at 100 Hertz: dependence of the direction of motion on the electrolyte, order of magnitude of the interparticle velocity, invariance of the lateral motion to changes in the particle zeta potential, and observed steady separation between particles that otherwise tend to aggregate. The model is expected to apply up to approximately 1 kHz, at which essentially all of the alternating current flows through the double-layer capacitance and not the faradaic reaction.