Computer simulation of electrokinetics in colloidal systems
The contribution gives a brief overview outlining how our theoretical understanding of the phenomenon of colloidal electrophoresis has improved over the decades. Particular emphasis is put on numerical calculations and computer simulation models, which have become more and more important as the level of description became more detailed and refined. Due to computational limitations, it has so far not been possible to study “perfect” models. Different complementary models have hence been developed, and their various strengths and deficiencies are briefly discussed. This is contrasted with the experimental situation, where there are still observations waiting for theoretical explanation. The contribution then outlines our recent development of a numerical method to solve the electrokinetic equations for a finite volume in three dimensions, and describes some new results that could be obtained by the approach.