Máthé Marcell Tibor, Nishikawa Hiroya, Araoka Fumito, Jákli Antal, Salamon Péter
Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics, P.O. Box 49, Budapest, Hungary.
Eötvös Loránd University, P.O. Box 32, Budapest, Hungary.
Nat Commun. 2024 Aug 20;15(1):6928. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-50226-y.
Ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals are fluids exhibiting spontaneous electric polarization, which is coupled to their long range orientational order. Due to their inherent property of making bound and surface charges, the free surface of ferroelectric nematics becomes unstable in electric fields. Here we show that ferroelectric liquid bridges between two electrode plates undergo distinct interfacial instabilities. In a specific range of frequency and voltage, the ferroelectric fluid bridges move as active interacting particles resembling living organisms like swarming insects, microbes or microrobots. The motion is accompanied by sound emission, as a consequence of piezoelectricity and electrostriction. Statistical analysis of the active particles reveals that the movement can be controlled by the applied voltage, which implies the possible application of the system in new types of microfluidic devices.
铁电向列型液晶是表现出自发电极化的流体，其与长程取向有序相耦合。由于它们具有产生束缚电荷和表面电荷的固有特性，铁电向列型液晶的自由表面在电场中会变得不稳定。在此我们表明，两个电极板之间的铁电液桥会经历明显的界面不稳定性。在特定的频率和电压范围内，铁电液桥像群居昆虫、微生物或微型机器人等生物一样作为活跃的相互作用粒子移动。由于压电性和电致伸缩，该运动伴随着声音发射。对这些活跃粒子的统计分析表明，其运动可以通过施加的电压来控制，这意味着该系统在新型微流控装置中具有潜在应用价值。
