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Updated: Dec 27, 2025

The Preparation of Electrohydrodynamic Bridges from Polar Dielectric Liquids
Published on: September 30, 2014
Electric-Field-Induced Pattern Formation in Layers of DNA Molecules at the Interface between Two Immiscible Liquids
Steffen Hardt1, Johannes Hartmann1, Sicheng Zhao1
1Institute for Nano- and Microfluidics, TU Darmstadt, Alarich-Weiss-Straße 10, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany.
Abstract:
The concentration patterns of DNA molecules attached to the interface between two immiscible aqueous phases forming under an electric field are studied. The pattern formation is driven by hydrodynamic interactions between the molecules originating from the electro-osmotic flow due to the Debye layer around a molecule. A nonlinear integrodifferential equation is derived describing the time evolution of the concentration field at the liquid-liquid interface. A linear stability analysis of this equation shows that a mode of given wavelength is initially stable, but destabilizes after a critical time which is inversely proportional to the wavelength. The scaling behavior of the critical time with electric field strength and viscosity found in the experiments agrees with the predictions by the theoretical model.
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