Eur. Phys. J. E (2019) 42: 55
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2019-11822-y

Regular Article

The Soret coefficient from the Faxén theorem for a particle moving in a fluid under a temperature gradient

¹ Departament de Física de la Matéria Condensada, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Avinguda Diagonal 647, 08028, Barcelona, Spain
² Institut de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

^* e-mail: aarangor@unal.edu.co

Received: 18 February 2019
Accepted: 9 April 2019
Published online: 14 May 2019

Abstract

We compute the Soret coefficient for a particle moving through a fluid subjected to a temperature gradient. The viscosity and thermal conductivity of the particle are in general different from those of the solvent and its surface tension may depend on temperature. We find that the Soret coefficient depends linearly on the derivative of the surface tension with respect to temperature and decreases in accordance with the ratios between viscosities and thermal conductivities of particle and solvent. Additionally, the Soret coefficient also depends on a parameter which gives the ratio between Marangoni and shear stresses, a dependence which results from the local stresses inducing a heat flux along the particle surface. Our results are compared to those obtained by using the Stokes value for the mobility in the calculation of the Soret coefficient and in the estimation of the radius of the particle. We show cases in which these differences may be important. The new expression of the Soret coefficient can systematically be used for a more accurate study of thermophoresis.