Analysis of the electro-orientation of inorganic micro/nano-particles in a liquid polymer considering electrophoresis flow

A field-induced manufacturing method to control the orientation of particles or microsize fillers in a polymer in its liquid state has been developed for fabricating micro-tailored composites. This technology is able to locally manipulate the orientation, and manufacture various structures of inclusions in a polymeric matrix. In this process, electrokinetic phenomena, such as dielectrophoresis, dipole–dipole interactions and electrophoresis, influence the orientation and redistribution of the particles. Of these phenomena, electrophoresis plays an important role in orienting non-spherical particles in a continuous phase. To analyze the effect of electrophoresis, the orientation of glass fibers in a liquid epoxy under an electric field was experimentally observed for the epoxy's viscosities and applied field strengths, and a torque balance was suggested considering instability flow caused by the electrophoretic force. Comparisons of experimental data with theoretical predictions indicated that the proposed model could provide a more accurate prediction than that of a conventional model.