Related papers: Chemistry in Motion: Tiny Synthetic Motors
Active Brownian particles are capable of taking up energy from their environment and converting it into directed motion; examples range from chemotactic cells and bacteria to artificial micro-swimmers. We have recently demonstrated that…
Self-propelled particles and, in particular, those based on mesoporous silica, have raised considerable interest due to their potential applications in the environmental and biomedical fields thanks to their biocompatibility, tunable…
The generation of fluid flows by autophoretic microswimmers has been proposed as a mechanism to enhance mass transport and mixing at the micro- and nanoscale. Here, we experimentally investigate the ability of model 2-D "active baths" of…
Motor-driven cytoskeletal remodeling in cellular systems can often be accompanied by a diffusive-like effect at local scales, but distinguishing the contributions of the ordering process, such as active contraction of a network, from this…
Colloidal particles partially coated with platinum and dispersed in H2O2 solution are often used as model self-propelled colloids. Most current data suggest that neutral self-diffusiophoresis propels these particles. However, several…
The diffusion of a molecular motor in the presence of a constant external force is considered on the basis of a simple theoretical model. The motor is represented by a Brownian particle moving in a series of parabolic potentials placed…
Miniaturized, self-propelled locomotors use chemo-mechanical transduction mechanisms to convert fuel in the environment to autonomous motion. Recent experimental and theoretical studies demonstrate that these autonomous engines can…
We investigated three models of Brownian motors which convert rotational diffusion into directed translational motion by switching on and off a potential. In the first model a spatially asymmetric potential generates directed translational…
We study both experimentally and theoretically the dynamics of chemically self-propelled Janus colloids moving atop a two-dimensional crystalline surface. The surface is a hexagonally close-packed monolayer of colloidal particles of the…
Ionic and molecular selectivity is considered unique for the nanoscale and not realizable in microfluidics. This is due to the scale-matching problem -- a difficulty to match the dimensions of ions and electrostatic potential screening…
Self-propelling particles or microswimmers have opened a new field of investigation with both fundamental and practical perspectives. They represent very convenient model objects for experimental studies of active matter, and have…
A molecular motor is made of either a single macromolecule or a macromolecular complex. Just like their macroscopic counterparts, molecular motors "transduce" input energy into mechanical work. All the nano-motors considered here operate…
The propulsion of active particles by self-diffusiophoresis is driven by asymmetric catalytic reactions on the particle surface that generate a mechanochemical coupling between the fluid velocity and the concentration fields of fuel and…
In living cells, molecular motors create activity that enhances the diffusion of particles throughout the cytoplasm, and not just ones attached to the motors. We demonstrate initial steps toward creating artificial cells that mimic this…
Biological transport is supported by collective dynamics of enzymatic molecules that are called motor proteins or molecular motors. Experiments suggest that motor proteins interact locally via short-range potentials. We investigate the…
Intracellular transport processes driven by molecular motors can be described by stochastic lattice models of self-driven particles. Here we focus on bidirectional transport models excluding the exchange of particles on the same track. We…
In systems possessing a spatial or dynamical symmetry breaking thermal Brownian motion combined with unbiased, non-equilibrium noise gives rise to a channelling of chance that can be used to exercise control over systems at the micro- and…
Dense active matter, from bacterial suspensions and microtubule bundles driven by motor proteins to cellular monolayers and synthetic Janus particles, is characterised by mesoscale turbulence, the emergence of chaotic flow structures. By…
Brownian transport of self-propelled overdamped microswimmers (like Janus particles) in a two-dimensional periodically compartmentalized channel is numerically investigated for different compartment geometries, boundary collisional…
We study the dynamics of active Janus particles that self-propel in solution by light-activated catalytic decomposition of chemical "fuel." We develop an analytical model of a photo-active self-phoretic particle that accounts for…