Related papers: Solute-mediated colloidal vortex in a microfluidic…
In an externally imposed electrolyte (salt) concentration gradient, charged colloids drift at speeds of order one micrometre per second. This phenomenon is known as diffusiophoresis. In systems with multiple salts and 'crossed' salt…
Breaking spatial symmetry is an essential requirement for phoretic active particles to swim at low Reynolds number. This fundamental prerequisite for swimming at the micro-scale is fulfilled either by chemical patterning of the surface of…
We show that an electric field parallel to an electrically neutral surface can generate flow of electrolytic mixtures in small channels. We term this solvo-osmotic flow, since the flow is induced by the asymmetric preferential solvation of…
In this article, we study numerically the dispersion of colloids in a two-dimensional cellular flow in the presence of an imposed mean salt gradient. Owing to the additional scalar, the colloids do not follow exactly the Eulerian flow…
We demonstrate that "moderate" departures from the no-slip hydrodynamic boundary condition (hydrodynamic slip lengths in the nanometer range) can result in a very large enhancement - up to two orders of magnitude- of most interfacially…
The effect of interfacial slip on steady-state and time-periodic flows of monatomic liquids is investigated using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. The fluid phase is confined between atomically smooth rigid walls, and the…
Flows enabled by phoretic mechanisms are of significant interest in several biological and biomedical processes, such as bacterial motion and targeted drug delivery. Here, we develop a homogenization-based macroscopic boundary condition…
Thermo-osmotic flows - flows generated in micro and nanofluidic systems by thermal gradients - could provide an alternative approach to harvest waste heat. However, such use would require massive thermo-osmotic flows, which are up to now…
The development of microfluidic devices has recently revived the interest in "old" problems associated with transport at, or across, interfaces. As the characteristic sizes are decreased, the use of pressure gradients to transport fluids…
In this article, we study experimentally the dispersion of colloids in a two-dimensional, time independent, Rayleigh-B\'enard flow in the presence of salt gradients. Due to the additional scalar, the colloids do not follow exactly the…
Thermal forces drive several nonequilibrium phenomena able to set a fluid in motion without pressure gradients. Although the most celebrated effect is thermophoresis, also known as Ludwig-Soret effect, probably the simplest example where…
Phoretic mechanisms, whereby gradients of chemical solutes induce surface-driven flows, have recently been used to generate directed propulsion of patterned colloidal particles. When the chemical solutes diffuse slowly, an instability…
We have developed a microfluidic tool to measure the diffusion coefficient $D$ of solutes in an aqueous solution, by following the temporal relaxation of an initially steep concentration gradient in a microchannel. Our chip exploits…
We study the diffusiophoretic self-propulsion of a colloidal catalytic particle due to a surface chemical reaction in a vicinity of a solid wall. Diffusiophoresis is a chemico-mechanical transduction mechanism in which a concentration…
We perform experimental investigations of osmotically driven flows in artificial microchannels by studying the dynamics and structure of the front of a sugar solution traveling in 200 um wide and 50-200 um deep microchannels. We find that…
In a binary fluid mixture, the concentration gradient of a heavier molecular solute leads to a diffusive flux of solvent and solute to achieve thermodynamic equilibrium. If the solute concentration decreases with height, the system is…
We consider sedimented at a solid wall particles that are immersed in water containing small additives of photosensitive ionic surfactants. It is shown that illumination with an appropriate wavelength, a beam intensity profile, shape and…
We quantitatively study the transport of E. coli near the walls of confined microfluidic channels, and in more detail along the edges formed by the interception of two perpendicular walls. Our experiments establish the connection between…
Traditional models of electrokinetic transport in porous media are based on homogenized material properties, which neglect any macroscopic effects of microscopic fluctuations. This perspective is taken not only for convenience, but also…
We investigate the equilibrium properties of a colloidal solution in contact with a soft interface. As a result of symmetry breaking, surface effects are generally prevailing in confined colloidal systems. In this Letter, particular…