Related papers: Universal optimal geometry of minimal phoretic pum…
Breaking spatial symmetry is an essential requirement for phoretic active particles to swim at low Reynolds number. This fundamental prerequisite for swimming at the micro-scale is fulfilled either by chemical patterning of the surface of…
To facilitate the use and portability of Lab on a chip technology, it is desirable to avoid the use of bulky electronic systems for flow control. Developed self-powered microsystems typically move only small volumes of fluid performing up…
Phoretic self-propulsion is a unique example of force- and torque-free motion on small scales. The classical framework describing the flow field around a particle swimming by self-diffusiophoresis neglects the advection of the solute field…
Phoretic colloids self-propel thanks to surface flows generated in response to surface gradients (thermal, electrical, or chemical), that are self-induced and/or generated by other particles. Here we present a scalable and versatile…
Charged colloidal particles propel themselves through asymmetric fluxes of chemically generated ions on their surface. We show that asymmetry in the surface charge distribution introduces a new mode of self-phoretic motion for chemically…
Phoretic mechanisms, whereby gradients of chemical solutes induce surface-driven flows, have recently been used to generate directed propulsion of patterned colloidal particles. When the chemical solutes diffuse slowly, an instability…
The fabrication of synthetic self-propelled particles and the experimental investigations of their dynamics have stimulated interest in self-generated phoretic effects that propel nano- and micron-scale objects. Theoretical modeling of…
Pumping fluids is fundamental to a wide range of industrial, environmental, and biomedical applications. Among various pumping mechanisms, peristaltic pumps enable efficient and safe fluid transport by deforming an elastic tube without…
We have developed a simulation model to study the hydrodynamic flow fields around Brownian colloidal particles with an active surface patch. Hydrodynamics is introduced by modeling low-Reynolds-number fluid flows around a colloid using…
We present a complete reciprocal description of particle motion inside multi-component fluids that extends the conventional Onsager formulation of non-equilibrium transport to systems where the thermodynamic forces are non-uniform on the…
Various aspects of self-motility of chemically active colloids in Newtonian fluids can be captured by simple models for their chemical activity plus a phoretic slip hydrodynamic boundary condition on their surface. For particles of simple…
Numerous mixing strategies in microfluidic devices rely on chaotic advection by time-dependent body forces. The question of determining the required forcing function to achieve optimal mixing at a given kinetic energy or power input remains…
We propose to drive open microfluidic systems by shear in a covering fluid layer, e.g., oil covering water-filled chemical channels. The advantages as compared to other means of pumping are simpler forcing and prevention of evaporation of…
Artificial phoretic particles swim using self-generated gradients in chemical species (self-diffusiophoresis) or charges and currents (self-electrophoresis). These particles can be used to study the physics of collective motion in active…
The underlying mechanisms and physics of catalytic Janus microswimmers is highly complex, requiring details of the associated phoretic fields and the physiochemical properties of catalyst, particle, boundaries, and the fuel used. Therefore,…
A design for a pump is suggested which is based on well-known peristaltic pumps. In order to simply describe the operation of the proposed pump, an innovative interpretation of low Reynolds number swimmers is presented and thereafter a…
Systematic deflection of microparticles off of initial streamlines is a fundamental task in microfluidics, aiming at applications including sorting, accumulation, or capture of the transported particles. In a large class of setups,…
Many biological microswimmers are capable of chemotaxis, i.e., they can sense an ambient chemical gradient and adjust their mechanism of motility to move towards or away from the source of the gradient. Synthetic active colloids endowed…
A longstanding goal in colloidal active matter is to understand how gradients in fuel concentration influence the motion of phoretic Janus particles. Here, we present a theoretical description of the motion of a spherical phoretic Janus…
Air-permeable porous media hosts air within their pores. Upon removal from the interior of the material, these porous media have the tendency to reabsorb air from the surrounding, acting as a suction pump. Therefore, the technique used to…