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1. Electrophoretic Mobility of Nanoparticles in Water

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c08172  

   Matyushov, Dmitry V. ( March 2024 , The Journal of Physical Chemistry B)
2. Assessment of the Nonlinear Electrophoretic Migration of Nanoparticles and Bacteriophages

   https://doi.org/10.3390/MI15030369  

   Lomeli-Martin, Adrian ; Azad, Zakia ; Thomas, Julie A ; Lapizco-Encinas, Blanca H ( March 2024 , Micromachines)

   Bacteriophage therapy presents a promising avenue for combating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. Yet, challenges exist, particularly, the lack of a straightforward purification pipeline suitable for widespread application to many phage types, as some phages are known to undergo significant titer loss when purified via current techniques. Electrokinetic methods offer a potential solution to this hurdle, with nonlinear electrophoresis emerging as a particularly appealing approach due to its ability to discern both the size and shape of the target phage particles. Presented herein is the electrokinetic characterization of the mobility of nonlinear electrophoresis for two phages (SPN3US and ϕKZ) and three types of polystyrene nanoparticles. The latter served as controls and were selected based on their sizes and surface charge magnitude. Particle tracking velocimetry experiments were conducted to characterize the mobility of all five particles included in this study. The results indicated that the selected nanoparticles effectively replicate the migration behavior of the two phages under electric fields. Further, it was found that there is a significant difference in the nonlinear electrophoretic response of phages and that of host cells, as first characterized in a previous report, illustrating that electrokinetic-based separations are feasible. The findings from this work are the first characterization of the behavior of phages under nonlinear electrophoresis effects and illustrate the potential for the development of electrokinetic-based phage purification techniques that could aid the advancement of bacteriophage therapy.

    

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3. Characterizing the Solvent‐Induced Inversion of Colloidal Aggregation During Electrophoretic Deposition

   https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202201779  

   DeMoulpied, Justin R. ; Killenbeck, Jessica A. ; Schichtl, Zebulon G. ; Sharma, Babloo ; Striegler, Susanne ; Coridan, Robert H. ( December 2022 , Advanced Materials Interfaces)

   Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of colloidal particles is a practical system for the study of crystallization and related physical phenomena. The aggregation is driven by the electroosmotic flow fields and induced dipole moments generated by the polarization of the electrode‐particle‐electrolyte interface. Here, the electrochemical control of aggregation and repulsion in the electrophoretic deposition of colloidal microspheres is reported. The nature of the observed transition depended on the composition of the solvent, switching from electrode‐driven aggregation in water to electrical field‐driven repulsion in ethanol for otherwise identical systems of colloidal microspheres. This work uses optical microscopy‐derived particles and a recently developed particle insertion method approach to extract model‐free, effective interparticle potentials to describe the ensemble behavior of the particles as a function of the solvent and electrode potential at the electrode interface. This approach can be used to understand the phase behavior of these systems based on the observable particle positions rather than a detailed understanding of the electrode‐electrolyte microphysics. This approach enables simple predictability of the static and dynamic behaviors of functional colloid‐electrode interfaces.

    

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4. Nonlinear electrophoretic velocity of a spherical colloidal particle

   https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2023.537  

   Cobos, Richard ; Khair, Aditya S. ( August 2023 , Journal of Fluid Mechanics)

   Electrophoresis is the motion of a charged colloidal particle in an electrolyte under an applied electric field. The electrophoretic velocity of a spherical particle depends on the dimensionless electric field strength$\beta =a^*e^*E_\infty ^*/k_B^*T^*$, defined as the ratio of the product of the applied electric field magnitude$E_\infty ^*$and particle radius$a^*$, to the thermal voltage$k_B^*T^*/e^*$, where$k_B^*$is Boltzmann's constant,$T^*$is the absolute temperature, and$e^*$is the charge on a proton. In this paper, we develop a spectral element algorithm to compute the electrophoretic velocity of a spherical, rigid, dielectric particle, of fixed dimensionless surface charge density$\sigma$over a wide range of$\beta$. Here,$\sigma =(e^*a^*/\epsilon ^*k_B^*T^*)\sigma ^*$, where$\sigma ^*$is the dimensional surface charge density, and$\epsilon ^*$is the permittivity of the electrolyte. For moderately charged particles ($\sigma ={O}(1)$), the electrophoretic velocity is linear in$\beta$when$\beta \ll 1$, and its dependence on the ratio of the Debye length ($1/\kappa ^*$) to particle radius (denoted by$\delta =1/(\kappa ^*a^*)$) agrees with Henry's formula. As$\beta$increases, the nonlinear contribution to the electrophoretic velocity becomes prominent, and the onset of this behaviour is$\delta$-dependent. For$\beta \gg 1$, the electrophoretic velocity again becomes linear in field strength, approaching the Hückel limit of electrophoresis in a dielectric medium, for all$\delta$. For highly charged particles ($\sigma \gg 1$) in the thin-Debye-layer limit ($\delta \ll 1$), our computations are in good agreement with recent experimental and asymptotic results.

    

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5. Electrophoretic transport and dynamic deformation of bio‐vesicles

   https://doi.org/10.1002/elps.201900025  

   Morshed, Adnan ; Dutta, Prashanta ; Kim, Min Jun ( April 2019 , ELECTROPHORESIS)

   Study of the deformation dynamics of cells and other sub‐micron vesicles, such as virus and neurotransmitter vesicles are necessary to understand their functional properties. This mechanical characterization can be done by submerging the vesicle in a fluid medium and deforming it with a controlled electric field, which is known as electrodeformation. Electrodeformation of biological and artificial lipid vesicles is directly influenced by the vesicle and surrounding media properties and geometric factors. The problem is compounded when the vesicle is naturally charged, which creates electrophoretic forcing on the vesicle membrane. We studied the electrodeformation and transport of charged vesicles immersed in a fluid media under the influence of a DC electric field. The electric field and fluid‐solid interactions are modeled using a hybrid immersed interface‐immersed boundary technique. Model results are verified with experimental observations for electric field driven translocation of a virus through a nanopore sensor. Our modeling results show interesting changes in deformation behavior with changing electrical properties of the vesicle and the surrounding media. Vesicle movement due to electrophoresis can also be characterized by the change in local conductivity, which can serve as a potential sensing mechanism for electrodeformation experiments in solid‐state nanopore setups.

    

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