title: New electric-field-driven mesoscale phase transitions in polarized suspensions.
abstract: We report the discovery of a new class of an electric field-driven bulk phase transition due solely to dipolar interactions in a suspension under the action of a uniform ac field where the effects of other competing forces are suppressed. This transition appears after the well-known chain-column formation and causes the uniform suspension of columns to rearrange into a cellular pattern consisting of particle-free domains surrounded by particle-rich walls. Interestingly, the characteristic size of these domains scales linearly with the interelectrode spacing and remains insensitive to the size of the particles.
authors.affiliation: The Levich Institute, The City College of New York, 140th Street & Convent Avenue, New York, New York 10031, USA.
authors.forename: Anil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Khusid
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Acrivos
mesh_terms: D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D009038:Motion; D010316:Particle Size; D044367:Phase Transition / Q000528:radiation effects
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids