New Approach to Studying the Interaction between Charged Particles and its Impact on Science
DIPC Seminars
- Speaker
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Dr. Elena Bichoutskaia, School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
- When
-
2011/04/05
14:00 - Place
- Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC). Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal, 4 (nearby the Facultad de Quimica), Donostia
- Add to calendar
-
iCal
New Approach to Studying the Interaction between Charged Particles and its
Impact on Science
Elena Bichoutskaia
Lecturer in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham,
University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
elena.bichoutskaia@nottingham.ac.uk
URL: http://bichoutskaia.chem.nottingham.ac.uk
There are many instances in everyday life where small particles can acquire an
electrical charge of the same sign. Examples include aerosol and water
droplets in
clouds, dust particles in space, toner particles in ink-jet printers, and
suspensions of
colloidal particles. As the particles all carry a charge of the same sign,
either positive
or negative, they are expected to repel one another; however, under certain
circumstances their interaction can be strongly attractive. For conducting
particles,
this effect was identified by William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) who in 1845
developed the theory showing that the attraction is due to differences in the
magnitude
of the image charge induced in pairs of particles where either their size or
charge
differs.
Until recently there was no stable mathematical solution to the fundamental
problem
of calculating the electrostatic interaction between two charged particles of
a
dielectric material, mainly due to significant mathematical complexity of the
problem.
To date a variety of solutions have been offered, many of which present
mathematical
derivations with limited applicability, numerical complications or poor
convergence
at very short particle separation.
The author has very recently developed a comprehensive theory and provided a
stable
analytical solution with universal relevance to the electrostatic properties
of closely
interacting dielectric particles each carrying an arbitrary amount of charge.
In this
talk, the new theory will be discussed and integrated across multiple
disciplines.