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Updated: Sep 30, 2025

Generation and Control of Electrohydrodynamic Flows in Aqueous Electrolyte Solutions
Published on: September 7, 2018
Reversal of Electroosmotic Flow in Charged Nanopores with Multivalent Electrolyte
Igor M Telles1, Yan Levin1, Alexandre P Dos Santos1
1Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Caixa Postal 15051, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul CEP 91501-970, Brazil.
Abstract:
We study the reversal of electroosmotic flow in charged cylindrical nanopores containing multivalent electrolyte. Dissipative particle dynamics is used to simulate the hydrodynamics of the electroosmotic flow. The electrostatic interactions are treated using 3D Ewald summation, corrected for a pseudo-one-dimensional geometry of the pore. We observe that, for sufficiently large surface charge density, condensation of multivalent counterions leads to the reversal of the pore's surface charge. This results in the reversal of electroosmotic flow. Our simulations show that the Smoluchowski equation is able to quantitatively account for the electroosmotic flow through the nanopore, if the shear plane is shifted from the position of the Stern contact surface.
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