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Updated: Sep 8, 2025

Dispersion of Nanomaterials in Aqueous Media: Towards Protocol Optimization
Published on: December 25, 2017
Nanoparticle dispersion in porous media: Effects of attractive particle-media interactions
Deepak Mangal1, Jacinta C Conrad1, Jeremy C Palmer1
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA.
Abstract:
We investigate the effects of physicochemical attractions on the transport of finite-sized particles in three-dimensional ordered nanopost arrays using Stokesian dynamics simulations. We find that weak particle-nanopost attractions negligibly affect diffusion due to the dominance of Brownian fluctuations. Strong attractions, however, significantly hinder particle diffusion due to localization of particles around the nanoposts. Conversely, under flow, attractions significantly enhance longitudinal dispersion at low to moderate Péclet number (Pe). At high Pe, by contrast, advection becomes dominant and attractions weakly enhance dispersion. Moreover, attractions frustrate directional locking at moderate flow rates, and shift the onset of this behavior to higher Pe.
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