Approximate analytic expressions for the electrophoretic mobility of spherical soft particles.

Approximate analytic expressions are derived for the electrophoretic mobility of a weakly charged spherical soft particle consisting of the particle core covered with a surface layer of polymers in an electrolyte solution. The particle core and the surface polymer layer may be charged or uncharged. The obtained electrophoretic mobility expressions, which involve neither numerical integration nor exponential integrals, are found to be in excellent agreement with the exact numerical results. It is also found that the obtained mobility expressions reproduce all the previously derived limiting expressions and approximate analytic expressions for the electrophoretic mobility of a weakly charged spherical soft particle.