ABSTRACT
Advent of nematic liquid crystal flows has attracted renewed attention in view of microfluidic transport phenomena. Among various transport processes, electro-osmosis stands as one of the efficient flow actuation mechanisms through narrow confinements. In the present study, we explore the electrically actuated flow of an ordered nematic fluid with ionic inclusions, taking into account the influences from surface-induced elasticity and electrical double layer (EDL) phenomena. Toward this, we devise the coupled flow governing equations from fundamental free-energy analysis, considering the contributions from first- and second-order elastic, dielectric, flexoelectric, charged surface polarization, ionic and entropic energies. The present study focuses on the influence of surface charge and elasticity effects in the resulting linear electro-osmosis through a slit-type microchannel whose surfaces are chemically treated to display a homeotropic-type weak anchoring state. An optical periodic stripe configuration of the nematic director has been observed, especially for higher electric fields, wherein the Ericksen number for the dynamic study is restricted to the order of unity. Contrary to the isotropic electrolytes, the EDL potential in this case was found to be dependent on the external field strength. Through a systematic investigation, we brought out the fact that the wavelength of the oscillating patterns is dictated mainly by the external field, while the amplitude depends on most of the physical variables ranging from the anchoring strength and the flexoelectric coefficients to the surface charge density and electrical double layer thickness.
ABSTRACT
The effects of ion partitioning on the electrokinetics in a polyelectrolyte grafted nanochannel, which is the representative of a soft nanochannel, are analyzed. Earlier studies in this regard have considered low polyelectrolyte layer (PEL) grafting density at the rigid nanochannel wall and, hence, an equal permittivity inside and outside the grafted layer. In order to overcome this shortcoming, the concept of Born energy is revisited. The coupled system of the modified Poisson-Boltzmann and Navier-Stokes equation is solved numerically, going beyond the widely employed Debye-Hückel linearization and low PEL densities. The complex interplay between the hydrodynamics and charge distribution, modulated by the ion partitioning effect, along with their consequent effects on the streaming potential and electrokinetic energy conversion efficiency (EKEC) have been systemically investigated. It has been observed that the ion partitioning effect reduces the EKEC in comparison to the case with equal permittivity up to a certain electrical double layer thickness after which it increases the EKEC. For a high concentration of mobile charges within the PEL, the net gain in the maximum EKEC due to the ion partitioning effect is about 10 fold that of the case when the ion partitioning effect is not considered. We delve into the various scaling regimes in the streaming potential and intriguingly point out the exact location of peaks in efficiency. The present study also reveals the possibility of improvement in streaming potential mediated energy conversion by the use of polyelectrolyte materials, which possess substantially lower dielectric permittivity than the bulk electrolyte.
