https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2010-10584-4
Regular Article
Effect of counterions on the Rayleigh-Plateau instability of a charged cylinder
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, 400076, Bombay, Mumbai, India
* e-mail: rochish@che.iitb.ac.in
Received:
6
September
2009
Revised:
28
January
2010
Accepted:
22
February
2010
Published online:
31
March
2010
The effect of counterions on the instability of a charged cylinder is investigated. Both axisymmetric and asymmetric perturbations are considered. The analysis shows that the Rayleigh-Plateau instability is modified for a charged cylinder in the presence of counterions. For the axisymmetric instability, the counterions have a stabilizing effect at low values of 
, the inverse Debye layer thickness. However, the effect is destabilizing at higher values of . The asymmetric modes which are stable for an uncharged cylinder are rendered unstable at high values of . The analysis should be important in pearling instability of charged cylindrical vesicles. The expression for the correlation time of thermally induced shape fluctuations of charged cylindrical vesicles is also derived.
© EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2010
