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Updated: Sep 19, 2025

Merging Ion Concentration Polarization between Juxtaposed Ion Exchange Membranes to Block the Propagation of the Polarization Zone
Published on: February 23, 2017
Potential of Mean Force and Underscreening of Polarizable Colloids in Concentrated Electrolytes
Emily Krucker-Velasquez1, Martin Z Bazant1, Alfredo Alexander-Katz2
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
Abstract:
This study uses advanced numerical methods to estimate the mean force potential (PMF) between charged, polarizable colloidal particles in dense electrolytes. We observe that when the Debye screening length, λD, is below the hydrated ion size, the PMF shows discernible oscillations of purely electrostatic origin as opposed to chemical affinity, in addition to the expected exponential decay prescribed by Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory. Moreover, our findings suggest concentrated electrolytes are significantly less efficient at muting electrostatic interactions in electrostatically stabilized colloidal suspensions, potentially having significant implications for our understanding of colloidal stability and the forces that govern the behavior of concentrated charged soft matter systems beyond DLVO theory.
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