Dielectric behavior of spherical cell suspensions in relation to diffusion effects and presence of a nucleus

Abstract

The diffusive effects in cytoplasmic membranes in relation to the dielectric behavior of a suspension of conducting shells, with a fixed charge on the inner side, have been investigated. Quasi-static approximations to Poisson's equations were solved for the respective diffusive media and the local charge distributions were derived by taking into account the continuity equations. The results describe both α and β dispersion and reduce, in the corresponding limiting cases, to those previously presented by other workers. An additional increment of suspension permittivity in the α-dispersion range, due to the diffusive effects in membrane, was found. It is shown that given an adequate geometry, the presence of a cellular nucleus has no effect on the suspension dielectric behavior in the β-dispersion range. © 1995.