Poisson-Nernst-Planck Systems for Ion Flow with a Local Hard-Sphere Potential for Ion Size Effects

In this work, we analyze a one-dimensional steady-state Poisson-Nernst-Planck type model for ionic flow through a membrane channel with fixed boundary ion concentrations (charges) and electric potentials. We consider two ion species, one positively charged and one negatively charged, and assume zero permanent charge. A local hard-sphere potential that depends pointwise on ion concentrations is included in the model to account for ion size effects on the ionic flow. The model problem is treated as a boundary value problem of a singularly perturbed differential system. Our analysis is based on the geometric singular perturbation theory but, most importantly, on specific structures of this concrete model. The existence of solutions to the boundary value problem for small ion sizes is established and, treating the ion sizes as small parameters, we also derive an approximation of the I-V (current-voltage) relation and identify two critical potentials or voltages for ion size effects. Under electroneutrality (zero net charge) boundary conditions, each of these two critical potentials separates the potential into two regions over which the ion size effects are qualitatively opposite to each other. On the other hand, without electroneutrality boundary conditions, the qualitative effects of ion sizes will depend not only on the critical potentials but also on boundary concentrations. Important scaling laws of I-V relations and critical potentials in boundary concentrations are obtained. Similar results about ion size effects on the flow of matter are also discussed. Under electroneutrality boundary conditions, the results on the first order approximation in ion diameters of solutions, I-V relations and critical potentials agree with those with a nonlocal hard-sphere potential examined by Ji and Liu [J. Dynam. Differential Equations 24 (2012), 955-983].