Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 2, 2026

Preparation of Liquid Crystal Networks for Macroscopic Oscillatory Motion Induced by Light
Published on: September 20, 2017
Transport of particles in liquid crystals
1Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA. olavrent@kent.edu.
Abstract:
Colloidal particles in a liquid crystal (LC) behave very differently from their counterparts in isotropic fluids. Elastic nature of the orientational order and surface anchoring of the director cause long-range anisotropic interactions and lead to the phenomenon of levitation. The LC environment enables new mechanisms of particle transport that are reviewed in this work. Among them the motion of particles caused by gradients of the director, and effects in the electric field: backflow powered by director reorientations, dielectrophoresis in LC with varying dielectric permittivity and LC-enabled nonlinear electrophoresis with velocity that depends on the square of the applied electric field and can be directed differently from the field direction.
Related Concept Videos
Transcellular Transport of Solutes
Carrier Transport
Drift Current:
The drift of charge carriers is started by an external electric field (E). Charged particles, such as electrons and holes, experience an acceleration between collisions with lattice atoms. For electrons, this results in a drift velocity (vd) given by:
Protein Diffusion in the Membrane
Two Components: Liquid–Liquid Systems
Facilitated Diffusion
In this process, substrates such as organic compounds and ions interact with a transporter on one side, triggering conformational changes in proteins that enable...
Colloids and Suspensions

