For over a century, electric motors have relied on magnetism. Engineers thought electrostatic forces were too weak for practical use. Now, a new discovery with ferroelectric fluids is challenging this long-held belief.
Researchers have found that a specific electrostatic force, often overlooked, can become surprisingly strong in these special liquids. This force can move the fluid in ways not seen in regular materials.
A New Way to Create Motion
Most people think of electricity creating motion through the pull between opposite charges. This electrostatic pull is usually not strong enough for everyday machines. That's why electromagnetic motors, which use electricity to create magnetic fields, became the standard.
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Start Your News DetoxHowever, electric fields can also create a subtle sideways push. This force acts at a right angle to the applied voltage. In normal materials, this effect is very weak. But new experiments show that in ferroelectric fluids, this sideways force can be powerful. It can even move liquid against gravity and power a prototype motor without magnets or metal parts.
How Ferroelectric Fluids Work
Specially Appointed Professor Suzushi Nishimura and his team at Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) studied ferroelectric fluids. They placed the liquid between two electrodes, just a few millimeters apart, and applied voltage. The liquid moved sideways by almost 10 centimeters, even against gravity. Regular liquids did not show this movement.
This effect only happened in the ferroelectric fluid. The force also grew in an unusual way. In normal materials, increasing the voltage doesn't usually lead to a big increase in force. But with the ferroelectric fluid, a small voltage increase caused a proportional rise in force. This means electricity behaves very differently in this material.
Detailed analysis showed that the electric field makes molecules in the liquid line up in an organized way. This creates the sideways push. The team then wondered if this pushing force could also make something spin.
They built a prototype motor using this idea. It doesn't need magnets or a metal rotor. Tests confirmed that the motor could rotate using this newly controlled force.
The Future of Motors
This discovery changes how motors and movement systems can be designed. Most motors today rely on magnets and copper coils. This new method can create motion without magnets or rare earth metals. This is important as material resources become limited.
The new design could also be lighter and simpler. Since the spinning part can be made from resin instead of metal, devices could become lighter and respond faster. This could be useful in robotics, small machines, and precision systems.
Because the motor doesn't use magnetic fields, it could also work well in places where magnetic interference is a problem. This includes medical equipment and data storage devices. It also runs at much lower voltages than traditional electrostatic devices, making it safer and more practical.
Professor Nishimura shared his excitement. He said their experiments suggested a motor rotor might not need to be metal anymore. When they trusted the data and made a rotor entirely from plastic, it actually rotated. He noted that this force was predicted over 100 years ago, but no one had seen it directly until now.
Deep Dive & References
Huge transverse Maxwell stress in ferroelectric fluids and prototyping of new ferroelectric motors - Communications Engineering, 2025
