Thermophoresis of charged colloids in aqueous media has wide applications in biology. Most existing studies of thermophoresis focused on spherical particles, but biological compounds are usually non-spherical. The present paper reports a numerical analysis of the thermophoresis of a charged spheroidal colloid in aqueous media. The model accounts for the strongly coupled temperature field, the flow field, the electric potential field, and the ion concentration field. Numerical simulations revealed that prolate spheroids move faster than spherical particles, and oblate spheroids move slower than spherical particles. For the arbitrary electric double layer (EDL) thickness, the thermodiffusion coefficient of prolate (oblate) spheroids increases (decreases) with the increasing particle’s dimension ratio between the major and minor semiaxes. For the extremely thin EDL case, the hydrodynamic effect is significant, and the thermodiffusion coefficient for prolate (oblate) spheroids converges to a fixed value with the increasing particle’s dimension ratio. For the extremely thick EDL case, the particle curvature’s effect also becomes important, and the increasing (decreasing) rate of thermodiffusion coefficient for prolate (oblate) spheroids is reduced slightly.

Thermophoresis of charged spheroids has been widely applied in biology and medical science. In this work, we report an analysis of the anisotropic thermophoresis of diluted spheroidal colloids in aqueous media for extremely thin EDL cases. Under the boundary layer approximation, we formulate the thermophoretic velocity, the thermophoretic force, and the thermodiffusion coefficient of a randomly dispersed spheroid. The parametric studies show that under the aforementioned conditions, the thermophoresis is anisotropic and its thermodiffusion coefficient should be considered as a vector, DT. The thermodiffusion coefficient values and directions of DT are strongly related to the aspect ratio and the angle θ between the externally applied temperature gradient and the particle's axis of revolution: The increasing aspect ratio enlarges the thermodiffusion coefficient value DT of prolate (oblate) spheroids to a constant value when θ < 60° (θ > 45°), and it reduces DT of prolate (oblate) spheroids to a constant value when θ > 60° (θ < 45°). The thermodiffusion coefficient direction of both prolate and oblate spheroids deviates slightly from −∇T∞ for a small aspect ratio, and such deviation becomes serious for a large aspect ratio.

Thermophoresis of spheroidal colloids in aqueous media under the thermal conductivity effect is analyzed. The thermophoretic velocity and the thermodiffusion coefficient of spheroidal colloids have been formulated for extremely thin electric double layer (EDL) cases. Furthermore, a numerical thermophoretic model is built for arbitrary EDL thickness cases. The parametric studies show that the thermal conductivity mismatch of particle and liquid gives rise to a nonlinear temperature region around the spheroid, with the thickness close to the minor semiaxis. When the EDL region is thin relative to such nonlinear temperature region, the thermal conductivity effect on the thermophoresis of spheroidal colloids is significant, which strongly depends on the ratio of the minor semiaxis to the EDL thickness, the thermal conductivity ratio of particle to liquid, and the particle aspect ratio. Finally, to estimate the thermodiffusion coefficient of spheroidal colloids with arbitrary thermal conductivity, electrolyte concentration, and particle shape, the average dimensionless axial temperature gradient on the spheroidal equator plane in the EDL region is proposed.