Related papers: Self-propelling Microdroplets Generated and Sustai…
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…
Living cells use phase separation and concentration gradients to organize chemical compartments in space. Here, we present a theoretical study of droplet dynamics in gradient systems. We derive the corresponding growth law of droplets and…
We study chemically driven running droplets on a partially wetting solid substrate by means of coupled evolution equations for the thickness profile of the droplets and the density profile of an adsorbate layer. Two models are introduced…
The Leidenfrost effect enables droplets to levitate above a solid surface, significantly reducing the resistance to droplet motion. In this study, a spiked surface is utilized to achieve fast directional transport of Leidenfrost droplets,…
Phase change under reduced environmental pressures is key to understanding liquid discharge and propulsion processes for aerospace applications. A representative case is the sessile water droplets exposed to high vacuum, which experience…
The present study deals with the dynamics of a double emulsion confined in a microchannel under the presence of a uniform electric field. Towards investigating the non-trivial electrohydrodynamics of a compound droplet, confined in between…
Biological and artificial microswimmers often have to propel through a variety of environments, ranging from heterogeneous suspending media to strong geometrical confinement. Under confinement, local flow fields generated by microswimmers,…
Biological microswimmers often encounter deformable boundaries in physiological conditions; for instance, the viscoelastic walls of reproductive tract during migration of spermatozoa, or host tissue during early bacterial biofilm formation.…
This study investigates the hydrodynamics of droplet formation in a T-shaped cylindrical microfluidic device using micro-PIV experiments and CFD simulations. Devices of 150 micro-m internal diameter were fabricated from PDMS via a…
Diffusive transport of particles or, more generally, small objects is a ubiquitous feature of physical and chemical reaction systems. In configurations containing confining walls or constrictions transport is controlled both by the…
Microscopic self-propelled swimmers capable of autonomous navigation through complex environments provide appealing opportunities for localization, pick-up and delivery of micro-and nanoscopic objects. Inspired by motile cells and bacteria,…
Recent advances in the field of active soft matter promise a lot. Both, experimental advances and theoretical understanding point towards new material classes in reach, for example self-healing materials that might switch their properties…
We study transport in synthetic, bi-disperse porous structures, with arrays of microchannels interconnected by a nanoporous layer. These structures are inspired by the xylem tissue in vascular plants, in which sap water travels from the…
Micro motors that could run in liquid environment is very important for a variety of practices such as serving as pipeline robot, soft machine, drug delivery, or microfluidics system etc. However, fabrication of such tiny motors is…
We present an experimental investigation of the agglomeration of microbubbles into a 2D microfoam and its flow in a rectangular microchannel. Using a flow-focusing method, we produce the foam in situ on a microfluidic chip for a large range…
We discuss the flow field and propulsion velocity of active droplets, which are driven by body forces residing on a rigid gel. The latter is modelled as a porous medium which gives rise to permeation forces. In the simplest model, the…
Experimental observations indicate that chemically active droplets suspended in a surfactant-laden fluid can self-propel spontaneously. The onset of this motion is attributed to a symmetry-breaking Marangoni instability resulting from the…
Microparticles migrate in response to gradients in solute concentration through diffusiophoresis and diffusioosmosis. Merging streams of fluid with distinct solute concentrations is a common strategy for producing a steady concentration…
Proteins and nucleic acids can spontaneously self-assemble into membraneless droplet-like compartments, both in vitro and in vivo. A key component of these droplets are multi-valent proteins that possess several adhesive domains with…
Collective transport through channels shows surprising properties under one-dimensional confinement: particles in a single file exhibit sub-diffusive behavior, while liquid confinement causes distance-independent correlations between the…