Kinetics of Particle Adsorption in Stagnation Point Flow Studied by Optical Reflectometry

The kinetics of adsorption of nano-sized silica particles on a polymer pretreated surface were followed in situ by using optical reflectometry in a stagnation point flow setup. Conversion of the reflectometric signal to the surface coverage could be performed using a homogeneous slab model which was verified by determining the particle density on SEM pictures taken in the stagnation point and by comparison with a model which includes the particulate nature of the layer explicitly. The effects of salt concentration on the plateau adsorbed amounts for all particle sizes can be described with an effective hard sphere concept. Although initial slopes and plateau values are in reasonable agreement with a random sequential adsorption model, this model does not accurately describe the evolution of the surface coverage as a function of time in a stagnation point flow system. Copyright 1998 Academic Press. Copyright 1998Academic Press