Explosive electrostatic instability of ferroelectric liquid droplets on ferroelectric solid surfaces.

ABSTRACT: We investigated the electrostatic behavior of ferroelectric liquid droplets exposed to the pyroelectric field of a lithium niobate ferroelectric crystal substrate. The ferroelectric liquid is a nematic liquid crystal, in which almost complete polar ordering of the molecular dipoles generates an internal macroscopic polarization locally collinear to the mean molecular long axis. Upon entering the ferroelectric phase by reducing the temperature from the nematic phase, the liquid crystal droplets become electromechanically unstable and disintegrate by the explosive emission of fluid jets. These jets are mostly interfacial, spreading out on the substrate surface, and exhibit fractal branching out into smaller streams to eventually disrupt, forming secondary droplets. We understand this behavio

SUBMITTER: Barboza R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9371712 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature