We study the variation of the dielectric response of a dielectric liquid (e.g. water) when a salt is added to the solution. Employing field-theoretical methods, we expand the Gibbs free energy to first order in a loop expansion and calculate self-consistently the dielectric constant. We predict analytically the dielectric decrement which depends on the ionic strength in a complex way. Furthermo...

A newly patterned electrode is designed for a dielectric liquid lens. The electrode has a radial interdigitated structure which can provide a symmetrical-nonuniform fringing field. This electric field can effectively deform the shape of a dielectric liquid droplet in radial direction, causing the focal length of the liquid droplet to change. For a lens using glycerol as the droplet and optical ...

We present the implementation of dynamic electrostatic force microscopy in liquid media. This implementation enables the quantitative imaging of local dielectric properties of materials in electrolyte solutions with nanoscale spatial resolution. Local imaging capabilities are obtained by probing the frequency-dependent and ionic concentration-dependent electrostatic forces at high frequency (>1...

R esults are presented which complement earlier studies on oxidative coupling pro­ cesses in arom atic amines and dem onstrate strikingly the ease w ith which such reactions take place in liquid sulphur dioxide. Further, yields and stability of the interm ediate cation radicals in this solvent compared with others of similar dielectric constant implies the participation of ionising forces not d...

We report here uniform and defect-free homeotropic alignment of nematic liquid crystal having negative dielectric anisotropy (Deo0) on cleaned substrates, which can be changed to bright state (homogeneous alignment) by applying an electric field. However, non-uniformity in the bright state would not be desirable for display devices. Therefore, silane treated and gently rubbed substrates have be...

Weakly conducting dielectric liquid drops suspended in another dielectric liquid and subject to an applied uniform electric field exhibit a wide range of dynamical behaviours contingent on field strength and material properties. These phenomena are best described by the Melcher–Taylor leaky dielectric model, which hypothesizes charge accumulation on the drop–fluid interface and prescribes a bal...

A simultaneous improvement of the diffusion and dielectric properties of the simple point charge (SPC) model for liquid water appears to be very difficult with conventional reparametrization of the commonly used Lennard-Jones and Coulomb interaction functions and without including a self-energy correction in the effective pair-potential as is done in the SPC/E model. Here, a different approach ...

Electrowetting-on-dielectric devices typically have operating voltages of 10-20 V. A reduction in the operating voltage could greatly reduce the energy consumption of these devices. Herein, fully reversible one-electrolyte electrowetting of a droplet on a solid metal surface is reported for the first time. A reversible change of 29° for an 800 mV step is achieved. The effects of surface roughne...

This paper reports performances of improved Liquid Dielectrophoresis (LDEP) devices made of Al2O3, HfO2 or ZrO2 as dielectric layers, rather than using classical dielectric layers (SiN, SU-8 resin, SiO2...). These layers have been evaluated on several parameters, such as the threshold actuation voltage, the resistance to the electric field and the droplet generation process. The High-K material...

The dielectric anisotropy of a highly dispersive dual-frequency nematic liquid crystal (MDA-00-3969 (Merck KGa)) has been determined using the optical fully-leaky guided-mode technique. A 4Vrms sinusoidal voltage was applied across a 5microm hybrid aligned nematic (HAN) cell at various frequencies in both the positive and negative dielectric anisotropy regime. Optical data was collected at each...