Flexoelectricity in two-dimensional crystalline and biological membranes

Fatemeh Ahmadpoor, Pradeep Sharma

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

157 Scopus citations

Abstract

The ability of a material to convert electrical stimuli into mechanical deformation, i.e. piezoelectricity, is a remarkable property of a rather small subset of insulating materials. The phenomenon of flexoelectricity, on the other hand, is universal. All dielectrics exhibit the flexoelectric effect whereby non-uniform strain (or strain gradients) can polarize the material and conversely non-uniform electric fields may cause mechanical deformation. The flexoelectric effect is strongly enhanced at the nanoscale and accordingly, all two-dimensional membranes of atomistic scale thickness exhibit a strong two-way coupling between the curvature and electric field. In this review, we highlight the recent advances made in our understanding of flexoelectricity in two-dimensional (2D) membranes - whether the crystalline ones such as dielectric graphene nanoribbons or the soft lipid bilayer membranes that are ubiquitous in biology. Aside from the fundamental mechanisms, phenomenology, and recent findings, we focus on rapidly emerging directions in this field and discuss applications such as energy harvesting, understanding of the mammalian hearing mechanism and ion transport among others.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)16555-16570
Number of pages16
JournalNanoscale
Volume7
Issue number40
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 28 2015
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Materials Science

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