Diffusion, Interactions, and Structural Properties of Colloidal Suspensions in One-Dimensional Channels

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Number: CTS-0217746 Institution: U Chicago PI Name: B. Lin Title: Diffusion, interactions and structural properties of colloidal suspensions in one-dimensional channels ABSTRACT The proposed project is on the dynamical behavior of colloidal particles suspended in liquid confined within a narrow channel. This arrangement provides an experimental setup to investigate the particle transport characteristics in one-dimensional pores. It is shown that the presence of nearby walls affects the drag on a translating particle where interactions among particles produce non-Fickian transport within a pore. The experiments are designed to investigate the characteristics of one-dimensional diffusion, difficult to analyze theoretically in this complicated geometry and in realistic applications. The goal is to obtain new information about transport in confined geometry not anticipated from existing theories. The proposed project will shed light on the size of the particles (relative to the channel dimensions) for transport to be described by a one-dimensional diffusion model.