The effects of flexoelectricity on thermo-electro-mechanical behavior of a functionally graded electro-piezo-flexoelectric nano-plate are investigated in this paper using flexoelectric modified and the Kirchhoff classic theories. Moreover, using the variation method and the principle of minimum potential energy for the first time, the coupled governing nonlinear differential equations of the na...

Flexoelectricity and the concomitant emergence of electromechanical size-effects at the nanoscale have been recently exploited to propose tantalizing concepts such as the creation of “apparently piezoelectric” materials without piezoelectric materials, e.g. graphene, emergence of “giant” piezoelectricity at the nanoscale, enhanced energy harvesting, among others. The aforementioned developments...

Flexoelectricity is an electromechanical effect coupling polarization to strain gradients. It fundamentally differs from piezoelectricity because of its size-dependence and symmetry. Flexoelectricity is generally perceived as a small effect noticeable only at the nanoscale. Since ferroelectric ceramics have a particularly high flexoelectric coefficient, however, it may play a significant role a...

Thermal fluctuations renormalize the bending elasticity of lipid bilayers. This well-studied effect is a cornerstone in the study of several membrane biophysical phenomena. Analogously, nearly all membranes are endowed with an electromechanical coupling called flexoelectricity that admits membrane polarization due to curvature changes. Flexoelectricity is found to be important in a number of bi...

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics is usually used as a piezoelectric material. However it has characteristics of not only piezoelectricity but also flexoelectricity. Piezoelectricity is a phenomenon that electric polarization is induced by strain, and flexoelectricity is the one that the polarization is induced by strain gradient. In this study, flexoelectricity in poled soft PZT ceramics ...

In this Rapid Communication we show that the interplay between the deformation geometric-nonlinearity and distributions of external charges and dipoles lead to the renormalization of the membrane's native flexoelectric response. Our work provides a framework for a mesoscopic interpretation of flexoelectricity and if necessary, artificially "design" tailored flexoelectricity in membranes. Compar...

Flexoelectricity allows a dielectric material to polarize in response to a mechanical bending moment and, conversely, to bend in response to an electric field. Compared with piezoelectricity, flexoelectricity is a weak effect of little practical significance in bulk materials. However, the roles can be reversed at the nanoscale. Here, we demonstrate that flexoelectricity is a viable route to le...

The flexoelectric effect is the response of electric polarization to a mechanical strain gradient. It can be viewed as a higher-order effect with respect to piezoelectricity, which is the response of polarization to strain itself. However, at the nanoscale, where large strain gradients are expected, the flexoelectric effect becomes appreciable. Besides, in contrast to the piezoelectric effect, ...

the purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (icsi) and piezo-assisted sperm injection after pretreatment with calcium ionophore (cai) on the mouse embryo development. methods: in this study, the conventional icsi and piezo-icsi procedures were used. the efficacy of the methods was examined after mouse matured oocytes were fertilized with or witho...

In this paper we show that experimentally realizable apparently piezoelectric thin-film superlattices can be created from nonpiezoelectric materials provided an odd-order e.g., trilayer stacking sequence is used. The size-dependent mechanism of flexoelectricity, which couples gradients of strain to polarization, allows such a possibility. We present closed-form analytical expressions for the re...