Eur. Phys. J. E (2009) 28: 411-417
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2008-10435-y

Regular Article

DC conductivity of a suspension of insulating particles with internal rotation

Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, CNRS Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Parc Valrose, 06108, Nice cedex 2, France

^* e-mail: elisabeth.lemaire@unice.fr

Received: 2 July 2008
Revised: 31 October 2008
Accepted: 28 January 2009
Published online: 1 April 2009

Abstract

We analyse the consequences of Quincke rotation on the conductivity of a suspension. Quincke rotation refers to the spontaneous rotation of insulating particles dispersed in a slightly conducting liquid and subject to a high DC electric field: above a critical field, each particle rotates continuously around itself with an axis pointing in any direction perpendicular to the DC field. When the suspension is subject to an electric field lower than the threshold one, the presence of insulating particles in the host liquid decreases the bulk conductivity since the particles form obstacles to ion migration. But for electric fields higher than the critical one, the particles rotate and facilitate ion migration: the effective conductivity of the suspension is increased. We provide a theoretical analysis of the impact of Quincke rotation on the apparent conductivity of a suspension and we present experimental results obtained with a suspension of PMMA particles dispersed in weakly conducting liquids.