title: Electrohydrodynamic instability of a charged membrane.
abstract: The stability of shape fluctuations of a flat charged membrane immersed in a fluid is analyzed using a linear stability analysis. A displacement of the membrane surface causes a fluctuation in the conterion density at the surface. This in turn causes an additional contribution to the force density in the momentum equation for the fluid, which results in a normal stress at the surface which is opposite in direction to the stress caused by surface tension. This electrohydrodynamic effect destabilizes fluctuations when the surface potential exceeds a critical value.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kumaran
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D008566:Membranes; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011312:Pressure; D055672:Static Electricity; D013499:Surface Properties; D013500:Surface Tension; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D014867:Water