2025-10-02 九州大学
図：高分子ネットワーク液晶
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.kyushu-u.ac.jp/ja/researches/view/1336
- https://www.kyushu-u.ac.jp/f/63401/25_1002_01.pdf
- https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/3cwl-nl1m
多孔質媒体としてのポリマーネットワークにおけるネマティック液晶の電気対流 Electroconvection of a nematic liquid crystal in polymer networks as porous media
Hiroki Ifuku, Ryohei Kojima, Hirotaka Okabe, Shinya Kawano, Kazuhiro Hara, and Yoshiki Hidaka
Physical Review E Published: 27 August, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3cwl-nl1m
Abstract
The polymer network liquid crystal (PNLC), in which a polymer network is formed within a nematic liquid crystal, can be regarded as a porous medium. In this study, we discover electroconvection in the PNLC and examine its nonlinear, nonequilibrium physical properties. As the monomer weight fraction increases, distortions in the convective pattern emerge and the temporal fluctuations slow. The polymer network hinders the reorientation of the liquid crystal molecules, thereby suppressing the motion of the convection pattern. Furthermore, measurements of the electric Nusselt number, which characterizes the electrical transport phenomena, reveal that, as the monomer weight fraction increased, the threshold voltage for the onset of convection increased and the efficiency of charge transport decreased. This study quantitatively evaluated the nonlinear, nonequilibrium phenomena of the PNLC as flow phenomena in porous media.
