Electrophoresis of microparticle with hydrophobic surface in strong electric field

The study addresses the problem of electrophoresis of a dielectric particle with a hydrophobic surface. A complete dimensional formulation of the problem is presented, followed by a transition to a dimensionless formulation. The main method of investigation is the analytical solution of the problem, conducted separately for the electrical and the hydrodynamic components. The primary task was to derive a relationship for the electrophoresis velocity of the micro-particle with a hydrophobic surface based on key parameters of the problem: the intensity of the external electric field E∞, the slip length β, the surface charge density σ, the Debye number ν, and the ratio of the dielectric permittivities of the particle and the medium δ. Additionally, the study includes a comparison of the analytically obtained electrophoresis velocity of the hydrophobic particle with the results of numerical modeling of electrophoresis of a dielectric particle and an assessment of the contribution of the slip length parameter to the increase in electrophoresis velocity. The influence of the parameters σ and δ on the electrophoresis velocity is also demonstrated separately.