Spontaneous flow of tricyclic fluorine liquid crystal induced by an electric field

Abstract

We have recently discovered that the apparent viscosity of MBBA and EBBA becomes negative under turbulence induced by an electric field [1,2]. In the negative viscous state, there is a macroscopic mean flow across the entire sample in the turbulence induced by the electric field. In this study, the characteristics of the mean flow in MBBA and a tricyclic fluorinated liquid crystal PPDFB, the latter of which was recently confirmed to have a large negative viscosity, are investigated from viscosity measurements with a rheometer and image analysis of the flow in a cell.