Simulation of Diffusive Transport of Nanoparticles under an Externally Applied Electric Field

Abstract

Diffusive transport of nanoparticles plays an important role in many industrial and medical applications. Simulation and modeling are helpful to study and understand their behavior. In this study, a simulation model was developed to demonstrate the diffusion behavior of carboxyl modified polystyrene nanoparticles in a microfluidic channel, under the effect of an externally applied electric field. The diffusion coefficient was calculated by the complementary error function, and a User Defined Function (UDF) was used to include the effect of the electric field into the model. Results obtained from simulation were compared with experimental results from diffusion experiments conducted under the same conditions, and the diffusion coefficient obtained from the model was 1.19 times the experimental diffusion coefficient.