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Electro-Osmosis

Last updated: November 16, 2016

What Does Electro-Osmosis Mean?

Electro-osmosis refers to the movement of liquid in a porous material due to an applied electric field. Electro-osmosis is a very effective instrument when treating heterogeneous, silt and clay-rich soil.

The phenomenon of electro-osmosis is very useful in chemical separation techniques and buffered solutions.

Electro-osmosis can be used for organics removal. It reduces the need for specialized electrodes.

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Corrosionpedia Explains Electro-Osmosis

Electro-osmosis is the migration of water (and whatever is contained in the water) through a porous membrane resulting from a potential difference caused by the flow of electric charge through the membrane.

The liquid transportation rate depends on:

  • The properties of liquid
  • The properties of solid
  • The applied potential

Electro-osmosis has achieved two benefits when properly applied:

  • Provides uniform pore water movement in most types of soil. The size of the pore is not important. Electro-osmotic flow rate is primarily a function of applied voltage.
  • The electricity applied to the soil directly results in the heating of the soil. The soil warming not only increases the mobilization of volatile organics, but also increases the electro-osmotic permeability by lowering the viscosity of the pore water.

When the electro-osmotic flow of alkaline liquid to a particular sodium carbonate solution such as concrete occurs, it assists in repassivation of the steel and causes realkalisation of carbonated concrete.

Electro-osmosis techniques are commonly used in chemical analysis, soil analysis and processing, and microfluidic devices. All of these uses involve highly charged surfaces, often of oxides. In capillary electrophoresis, which is another use of electro-osmosis, chemicals are separated according to their electrophoretic mobility by applying an electric field.

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