Interaction of two dielectric macroparticles

The electrostatic interaction of two charged dielectric spherical particles with a nonuniform freecharge distribution over their surfaces in an external homogeneous electric field is considered. An exact solution for the electric field potential is obtained, and an analytical expression for the interaction force between these two particles is found. The case of a uniform free-charge distribution is considered in detail, and the region of parameters in the plane “the ratio of the radii vs. the ratio of the charges,” where repulsion between two like-charged particles turns into attraction as the interparticle distance decreases is established.     

Long range interactions between micro spheres and alloy surfaces in water changed by ion implantation

Ion implantation was adopted to change the surface potentials of samples made of aluminum bronze. The interactions between the SiO₂ particles and the sample surfaces in water were changed from attractive to repulsive. According to the surface element integration method, this interaction was simulated and the electrostatic double layer force was considered to be the dominated factor. This long range repulsive interaction was proved to have effect on preventing micro particles approaching the alloy surface by the fluorescent particles adhesion experiment, and the technology of ion implantation may have potential applications in adhesion resistance and abrasion reduction for alloys running in water.     

Semi-analytical method of calculating the electrostatic interaction of colloidal solutions

We present a semi-analytical method of calculating the electrostatic interaction of colloid solutions for confined and unconfined systems. We expand the electrostatic potential of the system in terms of some basis functions such as spherical harmonic function and cylinder function. The expansion coefficients can be obtained by solving the equations of the boundary conditions, combining an analytical translation transform of the coordinates and a numerical multipoint collection method. The precise electrostatic potential and the interaction energy are then obtained automatically. The method is available not only for the uniformly charged colloids but also for nonuniformly charged ones. We have successfully applied it to unconfined diluted colloid system and some confined systems such as the long cylinder wall confinement, the air–water interfacial confinement and porous membrane confinement. The consistence checks of our calculations with some known analytical cases have been made for all our applications. In theory, the method is applicable to any dilute colloid solutions with an arbitrary distribution of the surface charge on the colloidal particle under a regular solid confinement, such as spherical cavity confinement and lamellar confinement.     

Geometry estimation of planar swarm patterns

Phenomena of coupled individuals or particles aggregating to form cohesive patterns are ubiquitous in nature and human society. Estimation of the pattern geometry is of interest in many cases. This Letter considers a planar swarm system consisting of finite particles with long-range attractive and short-range repulsive interactions. An analytical approach is presented to evaluate the relative distance of neighboring particles and the diameter of the swarm pattern. The method is based on a scale transformation on minimum interaction potential condition of the steady state of the system, and can give conditions determining distance between neighboring particles in the steady state pattern as well as the size of it, under certain distribution assumptions. Numerical simulations are also carried out to show effectiveness of the approach.     

Melting of strongly coupled,negatively charged,two-dimensional dust cluster: The role of charge fluctuation amplitude

Structural and melting characteristics are investigated for negatively charged dust particles in the presence of a two-dimensional electrostatic parabolic confinement potential. For a restricted number of dust particles that are subject to the permanent flow of electrons and ions, numerical simulation is conducted taking into account the random charge fluctuation. The amplitude of the charge fluctuation affects the ground-state configuration and melting characteristics of a finite number of particles interacting through Coulomb potential. The melting temperature decreases when the amplitude of the charge fluctuation increases as a result of particles' strong repulsive interaction.     

Focusing properties of a mirror analyzer with hexapole cylindrical field

In this work, motion of charged particles is studied in a new-type electrostatic field—the multiple cylindrical one, formed by superposition of electrostatic fields of a cylindrical mirror and a circular hexapole. On a base of the power-series analytical technique of solution of the equation of motion presented in integro-differential form, charged particle trajectories are calculated. Data on focusing properties of hexapole cylindrical mirror analyzer are obtained.     

Modulated phases and slow dynamics in attractive colloids

A system with a short-range attraction and a competing long-range screened repulsion is studied by using the self-consistent Hartree approximation and a replica approach. It is shown that by varying the parameters of the repulsive potential and the temperature yields a phase coexistence, a lamellar and a glassy phase. These results, which are confirmed by molecular dynamic simulations on a system of particles interacting via a DLVO potential, provide novel insights in the role of modulated phases in the slow dynamics of charged colloids in polymeric solutions.     

Electrostatic force of dust deposition originating from contact between particles and photovoltaic glass

Charged photovoltaic glass produces an electrostatic field. The electrostatic field exerts an electrostatic force on dust particles, thus making more dust particles deposited on the glass. In this paper, the contact electrification between the deposited dust particles and the photovoltaic glass is studied. Meanwhile, the surface charge density model of the photovoltaic glass and the electrostatic force of charged particles are analyzed. The results show that with the increasing of the particle impact speed and the inclination angle of the photovoltaic panel, the charges on particles increase to different degrees.Under a given condition, the electrostatic forces acting on the charged particles at different positions above the glass plate form a bell-shaped distribution at a macro level, and present a maximum value in the center of the plate. As the distance between the particle and the charged glass decreases, the electrostatic force exerted on the particle increases significantly and fluctuates greatly. However, its mean value is still higher than the force caused by gravity and the adhesion force,reported by some studies. Therefore, we suggest that photovoltaic glass panels used in the severe wind-sand environment should be made of an anti-static transparent material, which can lessen the dust particles accumulated on the panels.     

Forces between charged surfaces in a solvent primitive model electrolyte

Grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations have been performed to investigate the components of the force between parallel charged surfaces in an electrolyte. The solvent primitive model (SPM) was used to investigate the effect of neutral hard sphere solvent particles on the force between the surfaces. The effects of particle size, wall charge density, charge valency of the electrolyte, and the exclusion of neutral hard sphere are discussed. When solvent particles are considered, the total force between the charged surfaces is always repulsive, even for divalent counterions. This is different from the earlier conclusion reached with a restricted primitive model electrolyte. The repulsive force decreases in going from monovalent counterions to divalent counterions.     

New electrostatic cylindrical energy analyzer

The focusing properties of an ideal cylindrical field in full relativistic field have been investigated for charged particles originating from an extended source and an analytical solution for the equations of motion has been provided. This focusing system can be used for production of electrostatic energy analyzer provided surface analysis from an extended area.     

Electrostatic adhesion of ion and triboelectric-charged particles

The adhesion of ∼10 μm charged toner particles is of considerable importance in the electrophotographic process for copying or printing documents. If the non-electrostatic short-range adhesion force is reduced with nanoparticle surface additives, the toner adhesion is dominated by an electrostatic force. However, the measured adhesion of triboelectrically charged toner is greater than the prediction of an electrostatic image force model that assumes a uniform surface charge distribution. The enhanced electrostatic adhesion of triboelectrically charged toner is attributed to a non-uniform surface charge distribution. To provide support for this interpretation, the adhesion of ion-charged toner is of interest since a more uniform surface charge distribution is expected. Electric field detachment measurements on ion-charged toner for different charge levels show that the adhesion of ion-charged toner is indeed less than that of triboelectrically charged toner.     

Acoustic radiation force analysis using finite difference time domain method

Acoustic radiation force exerted by standing waves on particles is analyzed using a finite difference time domain Lagrangian method. This method allows the acoustic radiation force to be obtained directly from the solution of nonlinear fluid equations, without any assumptions on size or geometry of the particles, boundary conditions, or acoustic field amplitude. The model converges to analytical results in the limit of small particle radii and low field amplitudes, where assumptions within the analytical models apply. Good agreement with analytical and numerical models based on solutions of linear scattering problems is observed for compressible particles, whereas some disagreement is detected when the compressibility of the particles decreases.     

Irreversible electrokinetic repulsion at zero-Reynolds-number sedimentation

Stokes-flow reversibility is violated in electrolyte solutions by a streaming-potential mechanism, where nonuniform convective currents within Debye layers surrounding charged particles induce electric fields in the electroneutral Ohmic bulk. We demonstrate the irreversibility consequences of this phenomenon for the problem of particle-pair sedimentation, where the two particles experience a repulsive force driven by bulk Maxwell stresses. At small separations the force scales inversely with the third power of separation distance. This singular behavior is associated with the counterrotation of the two torque-free particles, which leads through a lubrication mechanism to an intense electric field in the narrow gap between them. At large separations the force follows an inverse dependence upon the fourth power of separation, now associated with rectilinear particle motion.     

On the absence of charge symmetry in electrostatic interaction between charged drops and hard particles

It is shown that the analytical expressions for the energy and force of electrostatic interaction between charged conducting particles (drops), a point charge, and a finite-size particle, as well as between a particle (a drop or a point charge) and a conducting plane, are asymmetric with respect to the sign of one of the charges. This is because the polarization interaction is always attractive irrespective of the signs of interacting particles. The absence of this symmetry leads to the self-constriction of charged aerodispersed systems containing a condensed phase, for example, plasma or liquid-droplet systems.     

The Vlasov–Poisson–Boltzmann System Near Vacuum

Global classical solutions with small amplitude are constructed for the Cauchy problem to the Vlasov–Poisson–Boltzmann system, which describes the dynamics of charged particles interacting with their self-consistent electrostatic potential as well as with themselves through collisions. Received: 29 September 2000 / Accepted: 27 November 2000     

Gyroresonant surfing acceleration

We discuss a new acceleration or energization mechanism of charged particles in space and astrophysical plasmas. In the presence of an electrostatic potential gradient and a circularly polarized electromagnetic monochromatic wave, particles are accelerated efficiently by keeping cyclotron resonance with the wave due to the electrostatic dragging force. In addition, particles can propagate against the electrostatic potential even if they have smaller parallel energy. This mechanism is potentially widely applicable, in terms of particle acceleration and transport, to various space and astrophysical phenomena, such as shock environment and short-large amplitude magnetic structures. We introduce the basic physical process of the acceleration or energization mechanism theoretically and numerically.     

Nonlinear electrostatic waves in inhomogeneous dense dusty magnetoplasmas

The nonlinear electrostatic drift waves are studied using quantum hydrodynamic model in dusty quantum magnetoplasmas. The dissipative effects due to collisions between ions and dust particles have also been taken into account. The Korteweg-de Vries Burgers (KdVB) like equation is derived and analytical solution is obtained using tanh method. The limiting cases of KdV type solitary waves, Burger type monotonic shock waves and oscillatory shock solutions are also presented. It is found that both hump and dip type solitary structures are possible in quantum dusty plasmas. However, amplitude and width of the nonlinear structure depend on the dust charge polarity and its concentration in electron-ion quantum plasmas. The monotonic shock like structure is independent of the quantum parameter. It is found that shock strength is increased in the presence of positively charged particles in comparison with negatively charged dust particles. The oscillatory shock structures are also obtained and it is found that change in dust charge polarity only shifts the phase of the oscillatory shock in plasmas. The numerical results are also presented for illustration.     

Assembling 100 nm Scale Particles by an Electrostatic Potential Field

The assembly of particles is one of the many methods for the fabrication of organized structures in the range of micro- to nanometer sizes. These structures have potential applications in the electronic, optical and biochemical fields. Recently, many papers have reported the patterning of particles using patterned SAM (self-assembly monolayer) films and micro molding methods. We have been developing a new technique to assemble particles using an electrostatic field. This paper describes a new technique to fabricate two-dimensional microstructures assembled from 100 nm particles. Spherical silica of 900 nm diameter and aluminum of 100 nm diameter were used as the model particles. An electrostatic image was formed on an insulating substrate by drawing a focused electron beam at 10 keV. Both types of particles were deposited on the electrostatic images. In this process, the dielectrophoretic (DEP) force plays an important role in depositing particles on the electrostatic images. The DEP forces for particles in a suspension were calculated using numerical analysis. The result showed that the DEP force above the electrified region on the substrate is larger than disturbing forces, such as Brownian motion.     

Electric-field induced capillary interaction of charged particles at a polar interface

We study the electric-field induced capillary interaction of charged particles at a polar interface. The algebraic tail of the electrostatic pressure of each charge results in a deformation of the interface u approximately r(-4), where r is the lateral distance. The capillary interaction of nearby particles is repulsive and varies as rho(-6) with their distance rho. As a consequence, electric-field induced capillary forces cannot be at the origin of the secondary minimum observed recently for charged poly(methyl methacrylate) particles at an oil-water interface.