Electric birefringence anomaly of solutions of ionically charged anisometric particles

The term "electric birefringence anomaly" is known as the electric birefringence (EB) signal that occurs in solutions of ionically charged anisometric particles in a narrow concentration region. The signal is of opposite sign to the normal birefringence that occurs below and above this narrow concentration region. The normal electric birefringence signals in the dilute and more concentrated regions are due to the orientation of the particles in the direction of the applied electric field. The origin for the anomalous signal was not completely understood until now. The article summarises previous results in which the anomalous results had been observed but not well understood. It shows that the birefringence anomaly occurs in systems as diverse as micellar solutions, polyelectrolytes, solutions of clays, viruses and fibres. In all these systems the anomaly signals are present at the concentration when the length of the colloidal particles including the thickness of the electric double layer are about the same as the mean distance between the colloidal particles. Under these conditions the electric double layers of the particles overlap along the main axis of the particles but not in the direction across the particles. As a consequence of this situation a dipole is built up across the particles by the migration of the counter-ions of the particles in the electric field and this dipole leads to an orientation of the particles perpendicular to the electric field. The anomalous signal can usually be observed simultaneously with the normal signal. The amplitude of the anomalous signal can be larger than the amplitude of the normal signal. As a consequence the total birefringence changes its sign in the anomalous concentration region. The anomaly signal of the clays can also be explained by a fluctuating dipole around the particles, which is due to the fact that the centre of the ionic charges of the particles does not fall on the centre of the ionic charge of the counter-ions. The resulting dipole could also explain the anomaly signal.