Related papers: Active colloids at fluid interfaces
When captured by a flat nematic-isotropic interface, colloidal particles can be dragged by it. As a result spatially periodic structures may appear, with the period depending on a particle mass, size, and interface…
Harnessing active matter requires strategies that break the directional symmetry of self-propelled motion without altering the propulsion mechanism itself. Here, we show that magnetically inert spherical active colloids can be steered…
Starting from a microscopic model for a spherically symmetric active Janus particle, we study the interactions between two such active motors. The ambient fluid mediates a long range hydrodynamic interaction between two motors. This…
The diffusion of a Janus rod-shaped nanoparticle in a dense Lennard-Jones fluid is studied using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The Janus particle is modeled as a rigid cylinder whose atoms on each half-side have different interaction…
The active motion of phoretic colloids leads them to accumulate at boundaries and interfaces. Such an excess accumulation, with respect to their passive counterparts, makes the dynamics of phoretic colloids particularly sensitive to the…
Interfacial polar molecules feature a strongly anisotropic response to applied electric field, favoring dipole orientations parallel to the interface. In water, in particular, this effect combines with generic orientational preferences…
The use of active colloids for cargo transport offers unique potential for applications ranging from targeted drug delivery to lab-on-a-chip systems. Previously, Janus particles (JPs), acting as mobile microelectrodes have been shown to…
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…
The dynamics of spherical particles driven along an interface between two immiscible fluids is investigated asymptotically. Under the assumptions of a pinned three-phase contact line and very different viscosities of the two fluids, a…
We present a detailed analysis of the effective force between two smooth spherical colloids floating at a fluid interface due to deformations of the interface. The results hold in general and are applicable independently of the source of…
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…
We experimentally study the dynamics of active particles (APs) in a viscoelastic fluid under various geometrical constraints such as flat walls, spherical obstacles and cylindrical cavities. We observe that the main effect of the confined…
Active motion at complex fluid-fluid interfaces is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature. However, an intriguing question that is not fully addressed is how active motion affects and gets influenced by its complex environment. Here, we design a…
Active matter classifies systems consisting of self-propelled units which convert the energy stored locally or extracted from their environment into directed motion. It has recently attracted considerable attention due to rich new physics…
The physical mechanism of elasticity of liquid surfaces coated with colloidal particles is proposed. It is suggested that particles are separated by water clearings and the capillary interaction between them is negligible. The case is…
Thin liquid films with floating active protein machines are considered. Cyclic mechanical motions within the machines, representing microscopic swimmers, lead to molecular propulsion forces applied to the air-liquid interface. We show that,…
We report simulations of a spherical Janus particle undergoing exothermic surface reactions around one pole only. Our model excludes self-phoretic transport by design. Nevertheless, net motion occurs from direct momentum transfer between…
The ability to optically trap and manipulate artificial microswimmers such as active Janus particles (JPs) provides a breakthrough in active matter research and applications. However, it presents significant challenges because of the…
Janus phoretic colloids (JPs) self-propel as a result of self-generated chemical gradients and exhibit spontaneous nontrivial dynamics within phoretic suspensions, on length scales much larger than the microscopic swimmer size. Such…
In this work, we use Molecular Dynamics and Lattice-Boltzmann simulations to study the properties of charged Janus particles in an electric field. We show that for relatively small net charge and thick electrostatic diffuse layer mobilities…