ELECTRICAL CHARGES OF COLLOIDAL PARTICLES AND ANOMALOUS OSMOSIS
Authors: Loeb Jacques 
Published: May 2004

1. It has been shown in previous publications that when solutions of different concentrations of salts are separated by collodion-gelatin membranes from water, electrical forces participate in addition to osmotic forces in the transport of water from the side of the water to that of the solution. When the hydrogen ion concentration of the salt solution and of the water on the other side of the membrane is the same and if both are on the acid side of the isoelectric point of gelatin (e.g. pH 3.0), the electrical transport of water increases with the valency of the cation and inversely with the valency of the anion of the salt in solution. Moreover, the electrical transport of water increases at first with increasing concentration of the solution until a maximum is reached at a concentration of about M/32, when upon further increase of the concentration of the salt solution the transport diminishes until a concentration of about M/4 is reached, when a second rise begins, which is exclusively or preeminently the expression of osmotic forces and therefore needs no further discussion.

2. It is shown that the increase in the height of the transport curves with increase in the valency of the cation and inversely with the increase in the valency of the anion is due to the influence of the salt on the P.D. (E) across the membrane, the positive charge of the solution increasing in the same way with the valency of the ions mentioned. This effect on the P.D. increases with increasing concentration of the solution and is partly, if not essentially, the result of diffusion potentials.

3. The drop in the transport curves is, however, due to the influence of the salts on the P.D. (ϵ) between the liquid inside the pores of the gelatin membrane and the gelatin walls of the pores. According to the Donnan equilibrium the liquid inside the pores must be negatively charged at pH 3.0 and this charge is diminished the higher the concentration of the salt. Since the electrical transport is in proportion to the product of E x ϵ and since the augmenting action of the salt on E begins at lower concentrations than the depressing action on ϵ, it follows that the electrical transport of water must at first rise with increasing concentration of the salt and then drop.

4. If the Donnan equilibrium is the sole cause for the P.D. (ϵ) between solid gelatin and watery solution the transport of water through collodion-gelatin membranes from water to salt solution should be determined purely by osmotic forces when water, gelatin, and salt solution have the hydrogen ion concentration of the isoelectric point of gelatin (pH = 4.7). It is shown that this is practically the case when solutions of LiCl, NaCl, KCl, MgCl2, CaCl2, BaCl2, Na2SO4, MgSO4 are separated by collodion-gelatin membranes from water; that, however, when the salt has a trivalent (or tetravalent?) cation or a tetravalent anion a P.D. between solid isoelectric gelatin and water is produced in which the wall assumes the sign of charge of the polyvalent ion.

5. It is suggested that the salts with trivalent cation, e.g. Ce(NO3)3, form loose compounds with isoelectric gelatin which dissociate electrolytically into positively charged complex gelatin-Ce ions and negatively charged NO3 ions, and that the salts of Na4Fe(CN)6 form loose compounds with isoelectric gelatin which dissociate electrolytically into negatively charged complex gelatin-Fe(CN)6 ions and positively charged Na ions. The Donnan equilibrium resulting from this ionization would in that case be the cause of the charge of the membrane.