Morphological stability analysis of vesicles with mechanical-electrical coupling effects

作     者：Lingtian Gao Ying Liu ~ Qing Hua Qin Xi Qiao Feng 

作者机构：Applied Mechanics Lab Department of Engineering Mechanics Tsinghua University 100084 Beijing China Institute of Mechanics Beijing Jiaotong University 100044 Beijing China Department of Engineering The Australian National UniversityCanberra ACT 0200 Australia 

出 版 物：《Acta Mechanica Sinica》 (力学学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2010年第26卷第1期

页      面：5-11页

核心收录：

学科分类：081704[工学-应用化学] 07[理学] 070304[理学-物理化学(含∶化学物理)] 08[工学] 0817[工学-化学工程与技术] 080104[工学-工程力学] 0802[工学-机械工程] 0703[理学-化学] 0801[工学-力学（可授工学、理学学位）] 

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(10972121,10732050 and 10525210) 973 Program(2010CB631005) 

主　　题：Vesicle Cell membrane - Stability Mechanical-electrical coupling 

摘      要：Using a recently established liquid crystal model for vesicles, we present a theoretical method to analyze the morphological stability of liquid crystal vesicles in an electric field. The coupled mechanical-electrical effects associated with elastic bending, osmotic pressure, surface tension, Max- well pressure, as well as flexoelectric and dielectric proper- ties of the membrane are taken into account. The first and second variations of the free energy are derived in a com- pact form by virtue of the surface variational principle. The former leads to the shape equation of a vesicle embedded in an electric field, and the latter allows us to examine the stabil- ity of a given vesicle morphology. As an illustrative exam- ple, we analyze the stability of a spherical vesicle under a uniform electric field. This study is helpful for understanding and revealing the morphological evolution mechanisms of vesicles in electric fields and some associated phenomena of cells.