Zeta-potential of polystyrene latex determined using different electrokinetic techniques in binary liquid mixtures

The main goal of this work is to study the electrokinetic behaviour of two monodisperse polystyrene latexes with different particle size and surface charge density. Streaming current, electric conductivity and electrophoretic mobility were measured in aqueous and alcohol-water mixtures (for methanol and 1-propanol) for concentrated (porous plugs) and dilute colloidal dispersions, respectively. All these electrokinetic data were converted into zeta-potential using different theoretical approaches. The zeta-potential values so obtained for concentrated and dilute colloidal dispersions were compared for all cases studied. The obtained results provide important insights into the electrokinetic behaviour of polymer colloids with different surface charge density. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.