Seminar: Viscous Mechano-Electric Response of a Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid

We observed a direct viscous mechano-electric response in a room-temperature ferroelectric nematic liquid, i.e. a unique material that combines 3D fluidity with ferroelectric ordering. We placed the liquid into a deformable container with electrodes and measured the electric current generated by the mechanical actuation of the sample. This gave us an insight into several possible mechanisms of mechano-electric transduction, where ferroelectric ordering within the liquid was changed by material flow induced as a viscous response to external stress. Irregular manual actuation revealed that the electric response can be used to distinguish between forces of different magnitudes and durations. On the other hand, a periodic actuation at different frequencies (1-200 Hz) produced consistent results. We realized that the observed mechano-electric phenomena are promising for a range of possible applications spanning from simulations of fingertip sensors to energy harvesting from slow ambient mechanical disturbances.