In order to improve the performance of electrophoretic display, it is very important to know the cause of instabilities of pigment particles under the electric field. In this work, we observed the flow field around spherical colloidal particles in a d...
In order to improve the performance of electrophoretic display, it is very important to know the cause of instabilities of pigment particles under the electric field. In this work, we observed the flow field around spherical colloidal particles in a dielectric medium under DC and AC electric fields. Dodecane was used as a dielectric liquid and the nonionic surfactant as a dispersant. Due to optical limitation of our system, we introduced 750㎛-sized model particles made of PMMA and glass, respectively. As a result, we found an unusual flow around the particles under AC electric field, which has never been reported in the previous works. The flow direction was not consistent with that of conventional induced-charge electro-osmosis and the flow field also depends upon frequency and conductivity of solution. We discussed the mechanism of the flow field in dielectric colloidal system.