Related papers: Chemistry in Motion: Tiny Synthetic Motors
Chemical gradients provide the primordial energy for biological functions by driving the mechanical movement of microscopic engines. Their thermodynamic properties remain elusive, especially concerning the dynamic change in energy demand in…
Self-propelling micromotors are emerging as a promising microscale and nanoscale tool for single-cell analysis. We have recently shown that the field gradients necessary to manipulate matter via dielectrophoresis can be induced at the…
Microscale transport often relies on ubiquitous yet intrinsically random thermal fluctuations. Understanding how such fluctuations can be biased into directed motion has long been a central theme of nonequilibrium physics. Here, we…
The movement of motor particles consisting of one or several molecular motors bound to a cargo particle is studied theoretically. The particles move on patterns of immobilized filaments. Several patterns are described for which the motor…
Rolling of a small sphere on a solid support is governed by a non-linear friction that is akin to the Coulombic dry fiction. No motion occurs when the external field is weaker than the frictional resistance. However, with the intervention…
Most computer simulations of molecular dynamics take place under equilibrium conditions--in a closed, isolated system, or perhaps one held at constant temperature or pressure. Sometimes, extra tensions, shears, or temperature gradients are…
A model of an autonomous isothermal Brownian motor with an internal propulsion mechanism is considered. The motor is a Brownian particle which is semi-transparent for molecules of surrounding ideal gas. Molecular passage through the…
We investigate the spontaneous motion of an elliptical Janus particle, driven by Marangoni forces, on a water surface to understand how particle shape and size influence its dynamics. The Janus particle is one-half infused with a substance…
Phoretic swimmers are a class of artificial active particles that has received significant attention in recent years. By making use of self-generated gradients (e.g. in temperature, electric potential or some chemical product) phoretic…
Catalytically active particles suspended in a liquid can move due to self-phoresis by generating solute gradients via chemical reactions of the solvent occurring at parts of their surface. Such particles can be used as carriers at the…
We numerically investigate the motion of active artificial microswimmers diffusing in a fuel concentration gradient. We observe that, in the steady state, their probability density accumulates in the low-concentration regions, whereas a…
Biological functions in each animal cell depend on coordinated operations of a wide variety of molecular motors. Some of the these motors transport cargo to their respective destinations whereas some others are mobile workshops which…
We investigate the transport diffusivity of artificial microswimmers, a.k.a. Janus particles, moving in a sinusoidal channel in the absence of external biases. Their diffusion constant turns out to be quite sensitive to the self-propulsion…
Simulations can help unravel the complicated ways in which molecular structure determines function. Here, we use molecular simulations to show how slight alterations of a molecular motor's structure can cause the motor's typical dynamical…
Driven by the necessity to achieve a thorough comprehension of the bottom-up fabrication process of functional materials, this experimental study investigates the pair-wise interactions or collisions between chemically active SiO2-Pt Janus…
The motion of molecules on solid surfaces is of interest for technological applications, but it is also a theoretical challenge. We study the deterministic and thermal diffusive dynamics of a dimer moving on a periodic substrate. The…
Self-chemophoresis is an appealing and quite successful interpretation of the motility exhibited by certain chemically active colloidal particles suspended in a solution of their "fuel": the particle has a phoretic response to…
The quest for designing new self-propelled colloids is fuelled by the demand for simple experimental models to study the collective behaviour of their more complex natural counterparts. Most synthetic self-propelled particles move by…
We report a numerical study of the diffusiophoresis of short polymers using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. More precisely, we consider polymer chains in a fluid containing a solute which has a concentration gradient, and…
Achieving control over the directionality of active colloids is essential for their use in practical applications such as cargo carriers in microfluidic devices. So far, guidance of spherical Janus colloids was mainly realized using…