Marangoni flow in liquid crystal interfaces

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Abstract
This letter presents the equation of capillary hydrodynamics for interfaces between viscous isotropic fluids and nematic liquid crystals(NLCs) to establish the existence of a new class of Marangoni flow. The interfacial stress balance equation involves the surface divergence of the surface stress tensor. It is shown that the anisotropic elastic contribution to the surface stress tensor gives rise to bending stresses and tangential forces. When the tensor order parameter that describes the NLCstructure has surface gradients, a tensor order parameter-driven Marangoni flow is predicted. The strength of the predicted effect is proportional to the nematic–isotropic interaction energy characteristic of the interface, and the direction of flow is from low energy regions towards high energy regions.

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