Related papers: Colloidal Clusters as models for chiral active mic…
The growing interest in the non-equilibrium assembly of colloidal particles in active liquids is driven by the motivation to create novel structures endowed with tunable properties unattainable within the confines of equilibrium systems.…
We describe colloidal Janus particles with metallic and dielectric faces that swim vigorously when illuminated by defocused optical tweezers without consuming any chemical fuel. Rather than wandering randomly, these optically-activated…
Block copolymer are ideal matrices to control the localisation of colloids. Furthermore, anisotropic nanoparticles such as Janus nanoparticles possess an additional orientational degree of freedom that can play a crucial role in the…
Self-organisation is driven by the interactions between the individual components of a system mediated by the environment, and is one of the most important strategies used by many biological systems to develop complex and functional…
Controlled assembly of active-passive colloidal mixtures offers a route to reconfigurable microscale machines, but their self-assembly pathways remain poorly understood. We study the directed assembly of metallo-dielectric Janus particles…
Active matter systems - such as a collection of active colloidal particles - operate far from equilibrium with complex inter-particle interactions that govern their collective dynamics. Predicting the collective dynamics of such systems may…
Chiral active particles are able to draw energy from the environment to self-propel in the form of rotation. We describe an experimental arrangement wherein chiral objects, spinners, floating on the surface of a vibrated fluid rotate due to…
Capillary interactions can be used to direct assembly of particles adsorbed at fluid-fluid interfaces. Precisely controlling the magnitude and direction of capillary interactions to assemble particles into favoured structures for materials…
We introduce a representative minimal model for phoretically interacting active colloids. Combining kinetic theory, linear stability analyses, and a general relation between self-propulsion and phoretic interactions in auto-diffusiophoretic…
We study the active dynamics of self-propelled asymmetrical colloidal particles (Janus particles) fueled by an AC electric field. Both the speed and the direction of the self-propulsion and the strength of attractive interaction between the…
Developing angular trapping methods, which will enable optical tweezers to rotate a micronized bead, is of great importance for the studies of biomacromolecules during a wide range of torque-generation processes. Here we report a novel…
Recent advancements in active colloidal systems aim to mimic key characteristics of biological microswimmers, particularly their adaptive motility in response to environmental changes. While many approaches rely on externally imposing a…
Driven by the necessity to achieve a thorough comprehension of the bottom-up fabrication process of functional materials, this experimental study investigates the pair-wise interactions or collisions between chemically active SiO2-Pt Janus…
Self-propelled Janus particles exhibit autonomous motion thanks to engines of their own. However, due to randomly changing direction of such motion they are of little use for emerging nano-technological and bio-medical applications. Here,…
Switching on high activity in a relatively dense system of active Janus colloids, we observe fast clustering, followed by cluster aggregation towards full phase separation. The phase separation process is however interrupted when large…
The creation of synthetic systems that emulate the defining properties of living matter, such as motility, gradient-sensing, signalling and replication, is a grand challenge of biomimetics. Such imitations of life crucially contain active…
Adding a non-adsorbing polymer to passive colloids induces an attraction between the particles via the `depletion' mechanism. High enough polymer concentrations lead to phase separation. We combine experiments, theory and simulations to…
Lipid rafts are hypothesized to facilitate protein interaction, tension regulation, and trafficking in biological membranes, but the mechanisms responsible for their formation and maintenance are not clear. Insights into many other…
A major challenge in the study of active systems is to harness their non-equilibrium dynamics into useful work. We address this by showing how to design colloids with controllable spontaneous propulsion or rotation when immersed in active…
Artificial soft matter systems have appeared as important tools to harness mechanical motion for microscale manipulation. Typically, this motion is driven either by the external fields or by mutual interaction between the colloids. In the…