Related papers: Activity-controlled clogging and unclogging of mic…

Bioclogging, the clogging of pores with living particles, is a complex process that involves various coupled mechanisms such as hydrodynamics and particle properties. This article explores bioclogging at the microscale level. At this scale,…

We study mixtures of self-propelled and passive rod-like particles in two dimensions using Brownian dynamics simulations. The simulations demonstrate that the two species spontaneously segregate to generate a rich array of dynamical domain…

We experimentally investigate the clogging process of granular materials in a two-dimensional hopper, and present a self-consistent physical mechanism of clogging based on preformed dynamic chain structures in the flow. We found that these…

Active emulsions can spontaneously form self-propelled droplets or phoretic micropumps. It has been predicted that the interaction with their self-generated chemical fields can lead to multistable higher-order flows and chemodynamic…

The acoustofluidic method holds great promise for manipulating microorganisms. When exposed to the steady vortex structures of acoustic streaming flow, these microorganisms exhibit intriguing dynamic behaviors, such as hydrodynamic trapping…

We report observations of the self-assembly of coated droplets into regular clusters at the sudden expansion of a microfluidic channel. A double emulsion consisting of a regular train of coated microdroplets was created upstream of the…

Long, shallow microchannels embedded in thick soft materials are widely used in microfluidic devices for lab-on-a-chip applications. However, the bulging effect caused by fluid--structure interactions between the internal viscous flow and…

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…

Molecular motors are essential to the living, they generate additional fluctuations that boost transport and assist assembly. Self-propelled colloids, that consume energy to move, hold similar potential for the man-made assembly of…

There are rich emergent phase behaviors in non-equilibrium active systems. Flocking and clustering are two representative dynamic phases. The relationship between these two phases is still unclear. In the paper, we numerically investigate…

Asymmetric obstacles can be exploited to direct the motion and induce sorting of run-and-tumbling particles. In this work, we show that flocking particles which follow the Vicsek model aligning rules experience a collective trapping in the…

Hollow microgels are elastic polymer shells easily realizable in experiments. Recent works have shown the emergence of buckling events in dilute hollow microgels under the effect of an added osmotic pressure. Here, we perform large-scale…

Natural materials often feature a combination of soft and stiff phases, arranged to achieve excellent mechanical properties, such as high strength and toughness. Many natural materials have even independently evolved to have similar…

Active matter comprises self-driven units, such as bacteria and synthetic microswimmers, that can spontaneously form complex patterns and assemble into functional microdevices. These processes are possible thanks to the out-of-equilibrium…

Active Brownian particles (ABPs) represent a minimal model of active matter consisting of self-propelled spheres with purely repulsive interactions and rotational noise. Here, we examine the pressure of ABPs in two dimensions in both closed…

Light-activated self-propelled colloids are synthesized and their active motion is studied using optical microscopy. We propose a versatile route using different photoactive materials, and demonstrate a multiwavelength activation and…

In this paper, we explore experimentally the phase behavior of a dense active suspension of self- propelled colloids. In addition to a solid-like and a gas-like phase observed for high and low densities, a novel cluster phase is reported at…

One of the most promising features of active systems is that they can extract energy from their environment and convert it to mechanical work. Self propelled particles enable rectification when in contact with rigid boundaries. They can…

We study the behaviour of catalytically active droplets in multi-component conserved mixtures affected by noise. Working in the thin interface limit, we analytically determine the state diagram of the system, characterized by multiple…

Microfluidic systems are now being designed with precision to execute increasingly complex tasks. However, their operation often requires numerous external control devices due to the typically linear nature of microscale flows, which has…