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BT Liu

Publications and source records attributed to BT Liu.

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Electrical Interaction Energy between Two Charged Entities in an Electrolyte Solution.

The electrical interaction energy between two charged entities in an electrolyte solution plays a significant role in various phenomena in colloid and interface science. Available methods for the estimation of this energy under the Debye-Huckel condition are discussed briefly, and a systematic approach based on a boundary integral method, which has the potential to yield an approximate analytical expression for various types of surfaces under a general surface condition, is introduced. The linear sizes of the interacting entities can be comparable or one is much larger than the other. A typical example for the former includes, for instance, the interaction between two colloidal particles. The stability behavior of a colloidal dispersion belongs to this category. That for the latter includes the interaction between a particle and a wall. The adsorption of particles to surfaces and the electrophoretic motion of particles near a boundary, for example, belong to this category. Extensions to more complicated cases, for example, multiple particles and arbitrary surfaces, are also discussed. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.

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Electrostatic Potential Distribution for Spheroidal Surfaces in Symmetric Electrolyte Solutions

The electrostatic potential distribution for a charged spheroidal surface immersed in a symmetric electrolyte solution is derived. Such surfaces simulate a wide class of dispersed entities. Two types of boundary condition at the solid surface are considered, constant surface potential and constant amount of surface charges; both conductive and nonconductive surfaces are examined for the latter. The present analysis extends the conventional one-dimensional treatment on simple geometries to a two-dimensional space. A perturbation method is adopted to solve the governing Poisson-Boltzmann equation for the case of thin to moderately thick double layers. The classic results for planar and spherical surfaces can be recovered as special cases of the present analysis. The basic thermodynamic properties of the system under consideration, such as Helmholtz free energy, entropy, and surface excess, are derived. We show that using an equivalent sphere to approximate a spheroid can lead to an appreciable deviation in the prediction of the Helmholtz free energy. For a thin double layer, assuming a planar geometry will underestimate the Helmholtz free energy. Copyright 1997Academic Press

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Electrostatic Interaction between Two Ion-Penetrable Charged Spheroids

The electrostatic interaction between two ion-penetrable, charged spheroidal particles is examined theoretically. These particles can assume different sizes and an arbitrary spatial orientation. The electrical potential distribution is derived analytically under the Debye-Huckle condition. The results for two interaction spheres, one spheroidal particle and a planar surface, and rigid particles covered by an ion-penetrable membrane can be recovered as the special cases of the present general problem. We show that, for a fixed center-to-center distance between two particles, regardless of their relative sizes, the interaction free energy is the greatest if their major axes lie on the same line (head-to-head), and the smallest if their major axes are perpendicular to each other but not on the same plane (perpendicular).

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