Phase transitions induced by electric fields in near-critical polymer solutions

Abstract

A time-dependent small-angle light scattering (SALS) study is presented which demonstrates the feasibility of electric-field-induced phase transitions in nonionic binary liquids near the critical point. Mixing of two-phase solutions induced by electric fields is shown to be a universal feature shared by a wide class of systems including upper and lower critical point polymer solutions and mixtures of low-molecular-weight molecules in a solvent. The shift of the critical temperature is computed from SALS measurements and is quadratic in the electric-field strength.