Electric Field Mediated Instabilities of a Thin Viscoelastic Film in the Presence of a Deformable Porous Media

Instabilities exhibited in the polymeric-porous media interfaces directly impact several contemporary applications such as organ-on-a-chips, microplastic depositions, and electrochemical energy devices. We have considered a model prototype of the abovementioned systems to uncover the interfacial characteristics of such interfaces under an external electric field application. A confined system of thin viscoelastic polymeric film and deformable porous layer under an external electric field is explored with the help of Linear Stability Analysis (LSA). The modified Kelvin-Voigt-Darcy-Brinkman model is used to represent the polymer flow through the porous media. The theoretical analysis unveils two distinct pathways of instabilities, (i) critical mode and (ii) dominant mode. The interplay between the destabilizing electric-field potential and the stabilizing elastic force of the film decides the fate of either of the above two modes of instabilities. Increasing the electric-field potential reduces the length scale, whereas the presence porous layer alters the time scale. The self-organized mesoscale patterns with tunable ordering can be developed to fabricate high-efficiency modern-day applications.