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Electrohydrodynamic instability: effect of rheological characteristics on the morphological evolution of liquid crystal–polymer interface

Bulletin of Materials Science volume 43, Article number: 169 (2020) Cite this article

Abstract

Electrohydrodynamic instability, in a polymer–air or polymer–polymer bilayer settings, gives rise to the formation of the ordered micropillars or microwells at the initial planar interface. It is well known that the complex interplay among the controlling parameters, such as the intensity of the electrostatic field, film thickness, interfacial tension and dielectric constants of the layers determine the morphology of the interface. In this report, for the first time, experimentally it is shown that rheological property of the lower polymer layer [here, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)] has a significant influence on the morphological evolution. We probe the kinetic time scale of the evolution by inducing fast destabilization of the interface due to the high dielectric contrast between two layers (liquid crystal–PDMS) and reduced interfacial tension. At this time scale, it was demonstrated that micropillars are formed for thin viscoelastic ‘soft’ PDMS film, whereas microwells were observed for viscoelastic ‘hard’ film in similar settings. A transition from micropillar to microwell was observed for viscoelastic ‘soft’ film when the thickness of the film increased from \({\sim } 4\) to \(11\,\upmu \hbox {m}\). Based on this observation, by controlling the rheological properties, different patterns were developed from similar templated PDMS substrates.

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Acknowledgements

PSGP thanks DST SERB, Grant No. ECR/2015/000447 and MeitY, Grant No. 5(9)/2012-NANO for financial aids. PR acknowledges the support from Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of India and Centre for Excellence in Nanoelectronics & Theranostic Devices, IIT Guwahati, for providing the instrumentation facilities to accomplish this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Nanotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, India

    Pritam Roy & Partho Sarathi Gooh Pattader

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, India

    Partho Sarathi Gooh Pattader

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  1. Pritam Roy
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  2. Partho Sarathi Gooh Pattader
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Correspondence to Partho Sarathi Gooh Pattader.

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All the authors designed the experiment. PR performed the experiments. The analysis of the result and the manuscript was written through the contributions from all the authors. All authors have given their approval to the final version of the manuscript.

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Roy, P., Gooh Pattader, P.S. Electrohydrodynamic instability: effect of rheological characteristics on the morphological evolution of liquid crystal–polymer interface. Bull Mater Sci 43, 169 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-020-2073-0

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