Related papers: Self-thermophoresis at the nanoscale using light i…
Achieving controlled and directed motion of artificial nanoscale systems in three-dimensional fluid environments remains a key-challenge in active matter, primarily due to the prevailing thermal fluctuations that rapidly randomize the…
Active particles locally transduce energy into motion, leading to unusual and emergent behaviors. However, current synthetic particles lack sensing and adaptation mechanisms. Here, we demonstrate a novel regulation pathway, through the…
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…
Active diffusiophoresis - swimming through interaction with a self-generated, neutral, solute gradient - is a paradigm for autonomous motion at the micrometer scale. We study this propulsion mechanism within a linear response theory.…
"Active matter" refers to a class of out-of-equilibrium systems whose ability to transform environmental energy to kinetic energy is sought after in multiple fields of science and at very different length scales. At microscopic scales, an…
Micro/nano-scale propulsion has attracted considerable recent attention due to its promise for biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery. In this paper, we report on a new experimental design and theoretical modelling of…
The ability to induce regions of high and low ionic concentration adjacent to a permeselective membrane or nanochannel subject to an externally applied electric field (a phenomenon termed concentration-polarization) has been used for a…
We present results of molecular dynamics (MD) calculations of the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids containing self-propelled nanoparticles. The translational and rotational dynamics observed in the simulations follow the…
Surface interactions provide a class of mechanisms which can be employed for propulsion of micro- and nanometer sized particles. We investigate the related efficiency of externally and self-propelled swimmers. A general scaling relation is…
Since the historical experiments of Crookes, the direct manipulation of matter by light has been both a challenge and a source of scientific debate. Here we show that laser illumination allows to displace a vial of nanoparticle solution…
Dielectrophoresis (DEP), the motion of polarizable particles in non-uniform electric fields, has become an important tool for the transport, separation, and characterization of microparticles in biomedical and nanoelectronics research. In…
Electrophoresis has been shown as a novel methodology to enhance heat conduction capabilities of nanocolloidal dispersions. A thoroughly designed experimental system has been envisaged to solely probe heat conduction across nanofluids by…
A new mechanism for micro-swimmer motion in an aquatic environment, which implies light-induced polarization perturbations as a motivation for its motion, is proposed. The mechanism assumes that natural light leads to an enhancement of the…
Self-diffusiophoretic particles exploit local concentration gradients of a solute species in order to self-propel at the micron scale. While an isolated chemically- and geometrically-isotropic particle cannot swim, we show that it can…
Microorganisms are able to overcome the thermal randomness of their surroundings by harvesting energy to navigate in viscous fluid environments. In a similar manner, synthetic colloidal microswimmers are capable of mimicking complex…
A locally heated Janus colloid can achieve motion in a fluid through the coupling of dissolved ions and the medium's polarizibility to an imposed temperature gradient, an effect known as self-thermo(di)electrophoresis. We numerically study…
Physics of self-propelled objects at the nanoscale is a rapidly developing research field where recent experiments focused on motion of individual catalytic enzymes. Contrary to the experimental advancements, theoretical understanding of…
The self-propulsion of artificial and biological microswimmers (i.e., active colloidal particles) has often been modelled by using a force and a torque entering into the overdamped equations for the Brownian motion of passive particles.…
Externally controlled motion of micro and nanomotors in a fluid environment constitutes a promising tool in biosensing, targeted delivery and environmental remediation. In particular, recent experiments have demonstrated that fuel-free…
In recent years, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy has been increasingly applied for the study of polymer dynamics on the nanometer scale. The core idea is to extract, from a measured autocorrelation curve, an effective mean-square…