ELECTROKINETIC TRANSPORT OF NON-NEWTONIAN FLUID THROUGH SOFT NANOCHANNEL WITH PH-RESPONSIVE AND PARTIALLY ION-PENETRABLE POLYMER LAYER

Abstract

The present article deals with the comprehensive parametric study on electroosmotic flow and transportation of ions through polymer grafted soft nanochannel containing non-Newtonian fluid. We consider the fully developed flow in a slit rectangular channel. The charged poly-electrolyte layer (PEL) carries a monovalent acidic ionizable group attached to a rigid wall. The ion partitioning effect is considered in our study, which arises from the difference in relative permittivity of the polyelectrolyte region and the bulk electrolyte. The non-linear Poisson−Boltzmann equation and the modified Cauchy momentum equation, which are coupled, are used to describe the mathematical model. The main objective of this analysis is to demonstrate the impact of bulk pH on the charge regulation of mono-ionic functional groups residing in PEL, the impact of flow behavior index and different electrohydrodynamic parameters, including EDL thickness, ion-partitioning parameter, the Debye−Hückel parameter, and softness parameters etc, on the overall flow modulation and selectivity parameter. This study is expected to constitute a significant step forward in the real-world continuum mathematical modelling of interfacial flow physics in the scenario of electrohydrodynamics in soft nanochannels.