The inclusion of the ionic size (steric) effects into the steady and locally developed diffusioosmotic flow inside a uniformly charged slit microchannel through a theoretical analysis is the subject of this study. The results indicate essential quantitative and qualitative distinctions between the steric effects on classical electrokinetic phenomena like electroosmosis and on diffusioosmosis. For example, although the steric effect on electroosmotic flow is always unfavorable, it may have a positive influence on diffusioosmosis and even double the mean velocity under certain conditions. Moreover, finite ionic sizes can even change the flow direction with a tendency to increase the chance of flow toward higher concentrations. Another interesting finding is that, unlike electroosmosis, the steric effects on diffusioosmotic flow do not vanish even when the EDL is very thin. The main quantitative difference between the ionic size effects on diffusioosmosis and the other electrokinetic phenomena is the critical zeta potential above which these effects become important which is here found to be only about several tens of millivolts. The more sensitivity of diffusioosmosis to the steric effects and also the above-mentioned surprisingly different trends are attributed to the induced electric field which may drastically get influenced by the steric factor.

Theories on the electrophoresis of spherical soft particles suspended in an electrolyte solution are thoroughly reviewed. The review predominantly covers studies on the electrophoresis in dilute and concentrated suspensions as well as bounded media, carried out mainly during the past two decades. Moreover, studies on the electrostatics of soft particles are also surveyed. Finally, the research gaps and prospects of the electrophoresis of soft particles are presented.

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The diffusioosmosis of an electrolyte solution inside a uniformly charged rectangular channel at steady locally developed conditions is the subject of this study. Utilizing a finite element based numerical procedure, we try to estimate the errors incurred by modeling the actual rectangular geometry of typical microchannels as a slit. We demonstrate that the flow pattern and direction are generally dependent upon the width-to-height ratio of the channel. Such a finding, besides showing the ineffectiveness of the slit geometry in representing a rectangular channel of small aspect ratio, informs us of another mechanism of controlling the diffusioosmotic flow. Inspections of the mean velocity reveal that, although it drastically grows by increasing the aspect ratio at smaller values of this parameter, no significant change is observed when the aspect ratio is 5 or higher. The same trend is observed when EDL is shrunk and is considered as a basis for the introduction of a slip-like velocity, similar to the concept of the Helmholtz-Smoluchowski electroosmotic velocity, which will be of high practical importance when dealing with a micronsized channel. Because of its significance, an expression is presented for this slip velocity utilizing the curve fitting of the results, assuming a typical Peclet number.