Related papers: Soft materials for linear electromechanical energy…
Particles added to a fluid interface can be used as a surface stabilizer in the food, oil and cosmetic industries. As an alternative to rigid particles, it is promising to consider highly deformable particles that can adapt their…
The polarization response of a material to a strain gradient, known as flexoelectricity, holds great promise for novel electromechanical applications. Despite considerable recent progress, however, the effect remains poorly understood. From…
We formulate a general theory of the dielectric response of a lattice with a structural transition and a polarization instability due to a soft-optic mode coupled to low energy electronic excitations by the electromagnetic fields. the…
In the review we briefly analyze the state-of-art in the theory of flexoelectric phenomena and analyze how significantly the flexoelectric coupling can change the polar order parameter distribution in different ferroics and liquid crystals.…
The recent discovery of electro-active polymers has shown great promises in the field of soft robotics, and was logically followed by experimental, numerical and theoretical developments. Most of these studies were concerned with systems…
The propagation front of a crack generates large strain gradients and it is therefore a strong source of gradient-induced polarization (flexoelectricity). Herein, we demonstrate that, in piezoelectric materials, a consequence of…
The variation of energies associated with soft matter interfaces where surface inhomogeneities are present. These energies include the total bending and splay energy, the variable surface tension energy, a coupling energy between the total…
Ferroelectric materials are established candidates for beyond complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, owing to their non-volatile spontaneous electrical polarization. The recent boom in electric dipole texture engineering and…
Coupling effects among different physical fields substantially reflect the conversion of energies from one form into another. For simple physical processes, their governing or constitutive equations all satisfy the law of conservation of…
Piezoelectric materials have wide sensing and energy transduction applications due to their inherent coupling of mechanical deformation and electric field. Recent discoveries have revealed that asymmetric or heterogeneous microstructures of…
It is highly desirable to discover an electromechanical coupling that allows a dielectric material to generate curvature in response to a uniform electric field, which would add a new degree of freedom for designing actuators.…
Extremely compliant elastic materials, such as thin membranes or soft gels, can be deformed when wetted by a liquid drop. It is commonly assumed that the solid capillarity in "soft wetting" can be treated in the same manner as liquid…
Upon application of a uniform strain, internal sub-lattice shifts within the unit cell of a non-centrosymmetric dielectric crystal result in the appearance of a net dipole moment: a phenomenon well known as piezoelectricity. A macroscopic…
In the framework of a continuum theory, it is shown that the direct flexoelectric response of a finite sample essentially depends on the surface polarization energy, even in the thermodynamic limit where the body size tends to infinity. It…
The growing library of two-dimensional layered materials is providing researchers with a wealth of opportunity to explore and tune physical phenomena at the nanoscale. Here, we review the experimental and theoretical state-of-art concerning…
The demand for renewable and environmentally friendly energy source has attracted extensive research on high performance catalysts. Ferroelectrics which are a class of materials with a switchable polarization are the unique and promising…
Electrowetting is a commonly used tool to manipulate sessile drops on hydrophobic surfaces. By applying an external voltage over a liquid and a dielectric-coated surface, one achieves a reduction of the macroscopic contact angles for…
A centrosymmetric stress cannot induce a polar response in centric materials, piezoelectricity is, for example, possible only in non-centrosymmetric structures. An exception is meta-materials with shape asymmetry, which may be polarized by…
Stretching dynamics of polymers in microfluidics is of particular interest for polymer scientists. As a charged polymer, a polyelectrolyte can be deformed from its coiled equilibrium configuration to an extended chain by applying uniform or…
Flexoelectricity is a form of electromechanical coupling that has recently emerged because, unlike piezoelectricity, it is theoretically possible in any dielectric material. Two-dimensional (2D) materials have also garnered significant…