Two-Stage Seebeck Effect in Charged Colloidal Suspensions

Abstract

We discuss the peculiarities of the Seebeck effect in stabilized electrolytes containing the colloidal particles. Its unusual feature is the two stage character, with the linear increase of differential thermopower as the function of colloidal particles concentration n⊙ during the first stage (“initial state”) and dramatic drop of it at small n⊙ during the second one (“steady state”). We show that the properties of the initial state are governed by the thermo-diffusion flows of the mobile ions of the stabilizing electrolyte medium itself and how the colloidal particles participate in the formation of the electric field in the bulk of the suspension. In its turn, we attribute the specifics of the steady state thermoelectric effect the massive colloidal particles undergoing slow thermal diffusion and the break down of their electro-neutrality in the vicinity of electrodes.