text: Electrophoretic mobility is proportional to electrophoretic velocity, which is the measurable parameter. There are several theories that link electrophoretic mobility with zeta potential. They are briefly described in the article on electrophoresis and in details in many books on colloid and interface science.
   There is an IUPAC Technical Report prepared by a group of world experts on the electrokinetic phenomena.
  From the instrumental viewpoint, there are three different experimental techniques: microelectrophoresis, electrophoretic light scattering, and tunable resistive pulse sensing. Microelectrophoresis has the advantage of yielding an image of the moving particles. On the other hand, it is complicated by electro-osmosis at the walls of the sample cell. Electrophoretic light scattering is based on dynamic light scattering. It allows measurement in an open cell which eliminates the problem of electro-osmotic flow except for the case of a capillary cell.  And, it can be used to characterize very small particles, but at the price of the lost ability to display images of moving particles. Tunable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS) is an impedance-based measurement technique that measures the zeta potential of individual particles based on the duration of the resistive pulse signal. The translocation duration of nanoparticles is measured as a function of voltage and applied pressure. From the inverse translocation time versus voltage-dependent electrophoretic mobility, and thus zeta potentials are calculated. The main advantage of the TRPS method is that it allows for simultaneous size and surface charge measurements on a particle-by-particle basis, enabling the analysis of a wide spectrum of synthetic and biological nano/microparticles and their mixtures.
  All these measuring techniques may require dilution of the sample. Sometimes this dilution might affect properties of the sample and change zeta potential. There is only one justified way to perform this dilution – by using equilibrium supernatant. In this case, the interfacial equilibrium between the surface and the bulk liquid would be maintained and zeta potential would be the same for all volume fractions of particles in the suspension. When the diluent is known (as is the case for a chemical formulation), additional diluent can be prepared.  If the diluent is unknown, equilibrium supernatant is readily obtained by centrifugation.