Colloquium: Phase transitions in polymers and liquids in electric fields
arXiv:0912.1736 · doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.81.1471
Abstract
The structure and thermodynamic state of a system changes under the influence of external electric fields. Neutral systems are characterized by their dielectric constant epsilon, while charged ones also by their charge distribution. In this Colloquium several phenomena occurring in soft-matter systems in spatially uniform and nonuniform fields are surveyed and the role of the conductivity sigma and the linear or nonlinear dependency of epsilon on composition are identified. Uniform electric fields are responsible for elongation of droplets, for destabilization of interfaces between two liquids, and for mixing effects in liquid mixtures. Electric fields, when acting on phases with mesoscopic order, also give rise to block copolymer orientation, to destabilization of polymer-polymer interfaces, and to order-order phase transitions. The role of linear and nonlinear dependences of epsilon on composition will be elucidated in these systems. In addition to the dielectric anisotropy, existence of a finite conductivity leads to appearance of large stresses when these systems are subject to external fields and usually to a reduction in the voltages required for the instabilities or phase transitions to occur. Finally, phase transitions which occur in nonuniform fields are described and emphasis on the importance of epsilon and sigma is given.
25 pages, 15 figures
References in corpus (15)
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- Solvation Effects in Near-Critical Binary Mixtures
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Cited by in corpus (12)
- Metal-Organic Framework Breathing in Electric Field: A Theoretical Study
- The interaction between colloids in polar mixtures above Tc
- Stability of Binary Mixtures in Electric Field Gradients
- Influence of substrate interaction and confinement on electric field induced transition in symmetric block copolymer thin films
- Control of chemical reactions using electric field gradients
- Reversible Pore Gating in Aqueous Mixtures via External Potential
- Vapor-liquid coexistence of the Stockmayer fluid in nonuniform external fields
- Bistable colloidal orientation in polar liquid near a charged wall
- Phase transition oscillations induced by a strongly focused laser beam
- Electroprewetting near a flat charged surface
- Recent advances in liquid mixtures in electric fields
- Phase lines in mean-field models with nonuniform external forces