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Morphological stability analysis of vesicles with mechanical–electrical coupling effects

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Abstract

Using a recently established liquid crystal model for vesicles, we present a theoretical method to analyze the morphological stability of liquid crystal vesicles in an electric field. The coupled mechanical–electrical effects associated with elastic bending, osmotic pressure, surface tension, Maxwell pressure, as well as flexoelectric and dielectric properties of the membrane are taken into account. The first and second variations of the free energy are derived in a compact form by virtue of the surface variational principle. The former leads to the shape equation of a vesicle embedded in an electric field, and the latter allows us to examine the stability of a given vesicle morphology. As an illustrative example, we analyze the stability of a spherical vesicle under a uniform electric field. This study is helpful for understanding and revealing the morphological evolution mechanisms of vesicles in electric fields and some associated phenomena of cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Mechanics Lab, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

    Lingtian Gao & Xi Qiao Feng

  2. Institute of Mechanics, Beijing Jiaotong University, 100044, Beijing, China

    Ying Liu

  3. Department of Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Qing Hua Qin

Authors
  1. Lingtian Gao
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  2. Ying Liu
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  3. Qing Hua Qin
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  4. Xi Qiao Feng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xi Qiao Feng.

Additional information

The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10972121, 10732050 and 10525210) and 973 Program (2010CB631005).

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Gao, L., Liu, Y., Qin, Q.H. et al. Morphological stability analysis of vesicles with mechanical–electrical coupling effects. Acta Mech Sin 26, 5–11 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-009-0295-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-009-0295-x

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