The Dielectrophoretic Motion of a Lossy Dielectric Sphere in a Liquid of Non-Zero Conductivity

Dielectrophoresis of particles in liquid media has been studied with the assumption that dielectrics involved are lossless. Real dielectrics exhibit non-zero conductivity, however, and this fact brings about behavior unpredictable by the ideal dielectric model. In the present work some attempts to investigate experimentally the dielectrophoretic motion of a lossy dielectric are described. The experimental results, compared with some theoretical predictions, offer more insight into the mechanism of the motion of lossy particles in insulating liquids of non-zero conductivity.