A novel method for measuring zeta potentials of solid-liquid interfaces

Yongxin Song; Kai Zhao; Mengqi Li; Xinxiang Pan; Dongqing Li

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2014.07.010

A novel method for measuring zeta potentials of solid-liquid interfaces

Anal Chim Acta. 2015 Jan 1:853:689-695. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2014.07.010. Epub 2014 Jul 16.

Authors

Yongxin Song¹, Kai Zhao¹, Mengqi Li¹, Xinxiang Pan¹, Dongqing Li²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Marine Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China.
² Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. Electronic address: dongqing@uwaterloo.ca.

PMID: 25467519
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2014.07.010

Abstract

A novel method for measuring the zeta potential of PDMS-electrolyte solution interface is presented in this paper. When an electrolyte solution passes the electrode coated with PDMS film, an electrical current will be induced due to the electrostatic potential difference between the PDMS-air interface and the PDMS-electrolyte solution interface. Based on this principle, the relationship between the measured electrical signal and the zeta potential of PDMS-electrolyte solution interface is experimentally investigated. The results show that the magnitude of the measured signal is linearly proportional to this potential difference. An empirical correlation between the zeta potential and the measured voltage signal was obtained. Good agreement was found when comparing the zeta potential calculated by this empirical equation with that reported in the published journal papers. The zeta potential measurement method presented in this paper is simple and accurate and can be used for measuring zeta potentials of other dielectric-electrolyte interfaces.

Keywords: Induced current; PDMS–electrolyte solution interface; Potential difference; Zeta potential measurement.