title: Vapor-liquid equilibrium in electric field gradients.
abstract: We investigate the vapor-liquid coexistence of polar and nonpolar fluids in the presence of a nonuniform electric field. We find that a large enough electric field can nucleate a gas bubble from the liquid phase or a liquid droplet from the vapor phase. The surface tension of the vapor-liquid interface is determined within squared-gradient theory. When the surface potential (charge) is controlled, the surface tension increases (decreases) compared to the zero-field interface. The effect of the electric field on the fluid phase diagram depends strongly on the constitutive relation for the dielectric constant. Finally, we show that gas bubbles can be nucleated far from the bounding surfaces.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering and The Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 84105 Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Sela
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samin
authors.forename: Yoav
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tsori