Related papers: Soft materials for linear electromechanical energy…
This paper develops the equilibrium equations describing the flexoelectric effect in soft dielectrics under large deformations. Previous works have developed related theories using a flexoelectric coupling tensor of mixed material-spatial…
Soft robotics requires materials that are capable of large deformation and amenable to actuation with external stimuli such as electric fields. Energy harvesting, biomedical devices, flexible electronics and sensors are some other…
Because of the flexoelectric effect, dielectric materials usually polarize in response to a strain gradient. Soft materials are good candidates for developing large strain gradient because of their good deformability. However, they always…
Dielectric nano-swithes made of the materials that exhibit piezoelectric and/or flexoelectric properties with significant electro-mechanical coupling are considered. In this case, a nonuniform strain field may locally break inversion…
Recent progress in the understanding of the effect of electrostatics in soft matter is presented. A vast amount of materials contains ions ranging from the molecular scale (e.g., electrolyte) to the meso/macroscopic one (e.g., charged…
We consider theoretically the properties of piezoelectricity in cholesteric elastomers. We deduce using symmetry considerations the piezoelectric contributions to the free energy in the context of a coarse-grained description of the…
Building on recent developments in electronic-structure methods, we define and calculate the flexoelectric response of two-dimensional (2D) materials fully from first principles. In particular, we show that the open-circuit voltage response…
A phenomenological model on the relationship between viscoelasticity and flexoelectricity is proposed to address the electromechanical coupling under rheological processes in viscoelastic materials. Our theoretical studies show that some…
Non-conductive materials like rubbers, plastics, ceramics, and even semiconductors have the property of flexoelectricity, which means that they can generate electricity when bent and twisted. However, an irregular shape or a peculiar load…
Biological membranes are capacitors that can be charged by applying a field across the membrane. The charges on the capacitor exert a force on the membrane that leads to electrostriction, i.e. a thinning of the membrane. Since the force is…
The impact of flexoelectric coupling on polarization reversal kinetics and space charge dynamics in thin films of ferroelectric-semiconductors has been theoretically studied. The relaxation-type Landau-Khalatnikov equation together with the…
Soft materials, such as liquids, polymers, foams, gels, colloids, granular materials, and most soft biological materials, play an important role in our daily lives. From a mechanical viewpoint, soft materials can easily achieve large…
Soft materials, such as colloidal suspensions, polymer solutions, and biological systems, are typically multicomponent mixtures of macromolecules and simpler components (e.g., microions, monomers, solvent) that can assemble into complex…
Soft condensed matter physics is the study of materials, such as fluids, liquid crystals, polymers, colloids, and emulsions, that are ``soft" to the touch. This article will review some properties, such as the dominance of entropy, that are…
A strong coupling between electric polarization and elastic deformation in solids is an important factor in creating useful electromechanical nanodevices. Such coupling is typically allowed in insulating materials with inversion symmetry…
Ferroelectric materials are characterized by the presence of an electric dipole that can be reversed by application of an external electric field, a feature that is exploited in ferroelectric memories. All ferroelectrics are piezoelectric,…
The origin of recently observed spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in polar fluids is an unsolved problem, and poses fundamental questions as to how heliconical structures emerge in systems composed of achiral molecules. We report on the…
Biological membranes undergo noticeable thermal fluctuations at physiological temperatures. When two membranes approach each other, they hinder the out of plane fluctuations of the other. This hindrance leads to an entropic repulsive force…
This review provides an introduction to the essential physics of soft adhesion, including the thermodynamics of adhesion and wetting, the mechanics of contact with deformable materials, and the material properties that most affect…
The flexoelectric (FE) effect provides a linear coupling between electric polarization and orientational deformation in liquid crystals. It influences many electrooptical phenomena and it is used in some bistable nematic devices. A…