CELADYCT

A key aspect of colloidal particles is that most of them bear an electrical charge that controls their interactions with the surrounding medium. Properly characterizing this charge is then of prime importance for understanding numerous phenomena such as for instance, heavy metal and natural organic matter adsorption in environmental systems, recycling by extraction processes or coagulation/flocculation phenomena. The electrical charge influences not only the organisation of the colloidal system but also the dynamics of the particles, which can both be exploited to determine the colloids charge. Dynamical methods are usually faster, and less expensive, but more difficult to analyse from a theoretical point of view. In this project, we aim at coupling two underused dynamical methodologies that are very sensitive to the charge, namely electroacoustics and dynamic conductivity, using a synergetic experimental and theoretical approach. Electroacoustics consists in applying an ultrasonic wave to an electrolyte solution and measuring the induced electric field, originating from the local separation of charges. Dynamic conductivity is the measure of the electrical conductivity in electric fields oscillating at various frequencies. These two methods are deeply related to each other, as they both imply the motion of charged species under the constraint of an external field. As only few people utilize these methods, there is still a considerable amount of work to do to build adapted and reliable devices. Indeed, the commercially available instruments are not fully adapted to the scientific challenges associated to the study of real and complex colloidal systems. To perform precise measurements, there is no alternative but constructing optimized homemade devices. There is also a need for performing standard measurements that can be used as references to calibrate those devices and validate the theories, and that can be shared with the scientific community. These tasks constitute the first part of our project. The presence of an industrial company within our partners will enable the development of commercial devices from the prototypes we’ll build. A successful characterization of colloidal suspensions does not only depend on a well-controlled experimental setup, but also depends on the reliability of the theoretical tools used to interpret the experimental results. For most real systems, the majority of available theories fail, in part because they neglect or treat approximately important interactions. The second part of our project concerns the improvement of the existing theories. In order to test the new versions of the theories, we will use the most advanced multiscale numerical methods, from Molecular Dynamics to Lattice Boltzmann mesoscopic simulations. The results of those simulations should provide the range of validity of the theories, and also help to find the ingredients that should be added to the theories. Once the theories are validated, the analytical formula for the experimental signals will be derived, which will enable the interpretation of the experiments in term of meaningful parameters that characterise the charge of the colloids. The new methodology will then be used to study charged colloidal systems of environmental and industrial interest. Firstly, we will investigate the charge properties of clays, which are of paramount importance as they control the behaviour of the system. In particular, we’ll investigate the influence of the positions of the charges within the clay on the effective charge. Secondly, we’ll apply our new experimental and theoretical tools to study liquid-liquid systems that are used to extract ions with charged nanodroplets. The objective is to understand the link between the charge properties of the nanodroplets and their extraction capacities.