Related papers: Charge-, salt- and flexoelectricity-driven anchori…
Mean-field theory is used to model polyelectrolyte adsorption and the possibility of overcompensation of charged surfaces. For charged surfaces that are also chemically attractive, the overcharging is large in high salt conditions,…
We study the electric double layer near a charged soft surface by using a mean-field approach including non-uniform size effect and solvent polarization. Based on a free energy model, electrostatic potential and number densities of water…
Activity in nematics drives interfacial flows that lead to preferential alignment that is tangential or planar for extensile systems (pushers) and perpendicular or homeotropic for contractile ones (pullers). This alignment is known as…
Using the symmetry theory we analyze of the flexomagnetic effect in all 90 magnetic classes and showed that 69 of them are flexomagnetic. Then we explore how the symmetry breaking, inevitably present in the vicinity of the surface, changes…
Although significant insights have been obtained into chemical and physical properties that govern to the performance of catalysts in traditional thermal processes, the work on electro-, photo-, or plasma-catalytic approaches has been…
Within the framework of continuum theory, we draw a parallel between ferromagnetic materials and nematic liquid crystals confined on curved surfaces, which are both characterized by local interaction and anchoring potentials. We show that…
Recent measurements suggest the possibility to exploit ionic liquids (ILs) as smart lubricants for nano-contacts, tuning their tribological and rheological properties by charging the sliding interfaces. Following our earlier theoretical…
The comprehensive depiction of the many-body effects governing nanoconfined electrolytes is an essential step for the conception of nanofluidic devices with optimized performance. By incorporating self-consistently multivalent charges into…
By means of a molecular model, we examine hybrid nematic films with antagonistic anchoring angles where one of the surfaces is in the strong anchoring regime. If anchoring at the other surface is weak, and in the absence of wetting by the…
The anchoring of nematic liquid crystals on surfaces with grafted liquid crystalline chain molecules is studied by computer simulations and within a mean field approach. The computer simulations show that a swollen layer of collectively…
Electrostatics in the solution phase is governed by free electrical charges such as ions, as well as by bound charges that arise when a polarizable medium responds to an applied field. In a local medium, described by a constant dielectric…
We study the effective interaction mediated by strongly coupled Coulomb fluids between dielectric surfaces carrying quenched, random monopolar charges with equal mean and variance, both when the Coulomb fluid consists only of mobile…
The solid nematic equivalent of the Fredericks transition is found to depend on a critical field rather than a critical voltage as in the classical case. This arises because director anchoring is principally to the solid rubbery matrix of…
We use molecular dynamics simulations to explore the impact of a non-ionic solvent on the structural and capacitive properties of supercapacitors based on an ionic liquid electrolyte and carbon electrodes. The study is focused on two pure…
Wetting of a charged substrate by an electrolyte solution is investigated by means of classical density functional theory applied to a lattice model. Within the present model the pure, i.e., salt-free solvent, for which all interactions are…
The influence of the texture of a hydrophobic surface on the electro-osmotic slip of the second kind and the electrokinetic instability near charge-selective surfaces (permselective membranes, electrodes, or systems of micro- and…
The continuous reduction of magnetic units to ultra small length scales inspires efforts to look for a suitable means of controlling magnetic states. In this study we show two surface charge alteration techniques for tuning the interlayer…
We investigate the electrostatic effects in doped topological insulators by developing a self consistent scheme for an interacting tight binding model. The presence of bulk carriers, in addition to surface electrons, generates an intrinsic…
Surface-bound electric charge on polymer materials can strongly influence droplet behaviour and solid-liquid charge transfer, but the mechanisms and the means to control these effects remain unclear. In this work, we systematically…
Polar nematic liquid crystals have two special features, compared with conventional nematic liquid crystals. First, because of flexoelectricity, the combination of polar order and splay reduces the free energy. Second, because of…