Sediment structure of fine silica spheres in an electrolyte solution

Monodispersed fine silica spheres were sedimented in KCl solution under an electrophoretic force applied in the gravitational or antigravitational direction. Effects of particle size, particle volume fraction, electrolyte concentration and applied field intensity were experimentally investigated. A Fast Fourier Transform analysis was conducted for the sediment surface and the degree of ordering of particles was evaluated. Two different conditions were found to affect the particle ordering, one related to the kinetic energy of the settling particle and the other related to the agglomeration.