Electric-Field-Induced Perfect Anti-Nematic Order in Isotropic Aqueous Suspensions of a Natural Beidellite Clay

We study the electric-field-induced birefringence and orientational order in the isotropic phase of aqueous suspensions of exfoliated natural beidellite clay particles, thin (L = 0.65 nm) flat charged sheets with high aspect ratio, D/L approximate to 300. Our electric birefringence experiment is optimized for aqueous suspensions of colloidal particles, with a high frequency a.c. electric field, v approximate to 1 MHz, applied by two external electrodes to a thin flat sample, sealed in an optical capillary. In isotropic and biphasic samples, we observed strong field-induced birefringence Delta n(E), saturating at moderate E-sat field to a plateau Delta n(sat) proportional to the volume fraction phi. The field-induced order parameter S(E) is negative and saturates to S-sat = -0.5 above E-sat. This corresponds to a perfect anti-nematic order, i.e. the normals of the beidellite particles are perpendicular to the field, without any preferred azimuthal direction. The measured specific excess polarizability Delta A(sp) is among the highest data reported for other strongly anisometric dielectric and metal particles. We explain the high Delta A(sp) value with the strong induced polarization of the electric double layer of counterions at the charged particle/electrolyte interface. The estimated equivalent conductivity of the beidellite particle K-eq = 2 K-sigma/L a is several orders of magnitude larger than the bulk conductivity of the electrolyte K-e, resulting in a metal-like behavior of the beidellite disks under field. In the isotropic regions of biphasic nematic/isotropic samples, the excess polarizability is further enhanced by an order of magnitude, indicating collective reorientation of the particles. We propose that this enhancement might be due to pretransitional fluctuations of the spontaneous nematic order S-N of the colloidal suspension and/or formation of chains of particles, with antinematic order of the beidellite disks in the chains.