Related papers: Self-solidifying active droplets showing memory-in…
Self-propelled jumping of two polymeric droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces is investigated by three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. Two identical droplets of a viscoelastic fluid slide, meet and coalesce on a surface with…
We report an experimental investigation of the spontaneous motion of liquid droplets on soft gels with a crosslinking gradient. By systematically adjusting the spatial difference in crosslinking density, we observed that millimeter-sized…
Polypeptide-based diblock copolymers forming either well-defined self-assembled micelles or vesicles after direct dissolution in water or in dichloromethane, have been studied combining light and neutron scattering with electron microscopy…
Surface-bound electric charge on polymer materials can strongly influence droplet behaviour and solid-liquid charge transfer, but the mechanisms and the means to control these effects remain unclear. In this work, we systematically…
Colloidal particles can self-assemble into various ordered structures in fluid flows that have potential applications in biomedicine, materials synthesis and encryption. These dynamic processes are also of fundamental interest for probing…
Dissolved ions can alter the local permittivity of water, nevertheless most theories and simulations ignore this fact. We present a novel algorithm for treating spatial and temporal variations in the permittivity and use it to measure the…
Active matter comprises individually driven units that convert locally stored energy into mechanical motion. Interactions between driven units lead to a variety of non-equilibrium collective phenomena in active matter. One of such phenomena…
Polyelectrolyte-surfactant complexes (PESCs) have long been employed as oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions stabilizers, but never in the structure of colloidal complex coacervates providing a Pickering effect. The complexed state of PESCs could…
The impact of complex media on the dynamics of active swimmers has gained a thriving interest in the research community for their prominent applications in various fields. This paper investigates the effect of viscoelasticity on the…
Polyelectrolytes are commonly used to chelate multi-valent ions in aqueous solutions, playing a critical role in water softening and the prevention of mineralization. At sufficient ionic strength, ion-mediated…
In many active matter systems, particle trajectories have a well-defined handedness or chirality. Whether such chiral activity can introduce stereoselective interactions between particles is not known. Here we developed a strategy to tune…
We present a continuum level analytical model of a droplet of active contractile fluid consisting of filaments and motors. We calculate the steady state flows that result from a splayed polarisation of the filaments. We account for the…
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…
We study the spontaneous charging and the crystallization of spherical micron-sized water-droplets dispersed in oil by numerically solving, within a Poisson-Boltzmann theory in the geometry of a spherical cell, for the density profiles of…
We numerically study the dynamics of a passive fluid droplet confined within a microchannel whose walls are covered with a thin layer of active gel. The latter represents a fluid of extensile material modelling, for example, a suspension of…
Self-propelling particles or microswimmers have opened a new field of investigation with both fundamental and practical perspectives. They represent very convenient model objects for experimental studies of active matter, and have…
With exquisite precision and reproducibility, cells orchestrate the cooperative action of thousands of nanometer-sized molecular motors to carry out mechanical tasks at much larger length scales, such as cell motility, division and…
Active systems comprising micron-sized self-propelling units, also termed microswimmers, are promising candidates for the bottom-up assembly of small structures and reconfigurable materials. Here we leverage field-driven colloidal assembly…
Suspended colloidal particles interacting chemically with a solute are able to self-propel by autophoretic motion when they are asymmetrically patterned (Janus colloids). Here we demonstrate that the chemical anisotropy is not a necessary…
Micro-organisms propel themselves in viscous environments by the periodic, nonreciprocal beating of slender appendages known as flagella. Active materials have been widely exploited to mimic this form of locomotion. However, the realization…