The Determination of Electrokinetic Coupling-Coefficient and Zeta Potential of Rock Samples by Electrokinetic Measurements

The electrokinetic effects are important in the understanding of electric properties in porous medium. In this study, the streaming potential and streaming current of saturated samples are measured at different concentrations, then three methods are applied to obtain the zeta-potential and electrokinetic coupling coefficient. The study shows that the results obtained from streaming potential and streaming current methods agree well with each other, but the results obtained from simplified streaming potential method become seriously inaccurate at low concentrations due to the influence of surface conductance. This experimental study also provides a reliable estimate of the surface conductivity and its contribution to zeta-potential at given concentrations.