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arXiv · 1604.01439

Electro-osmosis in nematic liquid crystals

O. M. Tovkach·M. Carme Calderer·Dmitry Golovaty·Oleg Lavrentovich·Noel J. Walkington
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Abstract

We derive a mathematical model of a nematic electrolyte based on a variational formulation of nematodynamics. Extending our previous work, we consider a general setup which incorporates dielectric anisotropy of the liquid-crystalline matrix and the full set of nematic viscosities. We verify the model by comparing its predictions to the results of the experiments on the substrate-controlled liquid-crystal-enabled electrokinetics. In the experiments a nematic liquid crystal confined to a thin planar cell with surface-patterned anchoring conditions exhibit electro-osmotic flows along the "guiding rails" imposed by the spatially varying director.

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O. M. Tovkach, M. Carme Calderer, Dmitry Golovaty, Oleg Lavrentovich, Noel J. Walkington. 2016-04-05. Electro-osmosis in nematic liquid crystals. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.94.012702

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