Related papers: The motion of catalytically active colloids approa…
Achieving control over the directionality of active colloids is essential for their use in practical applications such as cargo carriers in microfluidic devices. So far, guidance of spherical Janus colloids was mainly realized using…
Both natural and artificial small-scale swimmers may often self-propel in environments subject to complex geometrical constraints. While most past theoretical work on low-Reynolds number locomotion addressed idealised geometrical…
Self-propelled phoretic colloids have recently emerged as a promising avenue for the design of artificial swimmers. These swimmers combine purely phoretic interactions with intricate hydrodynamics which critically depend on the swimmer…
Water inherently contains trace amounts of various salts, yet the microscopic processes by which salts influence some of its physical properties remain elusive. Notably, the mechanisms that reduce the dielectric constant of water upon salt…
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…
The hydrodynamic interactions of a suspension of self-propelled particles are studied using a direct numerical simulation method which simultaneously solves for the host fluid and the swimming particles. A modified version of the "Smoothed…
In thermal equilibrium, a colloidal particle between two parallel plates immersed in a fluid which partially wets both the particle and the plates, is attracted by the walls. However, if the particle moves parallel to the plates, a…
We experimentally investigate active motion of spherical Janus colloidal particles in a viscoelastic fluid. Self-propulsion is achieved by a local concentration gradient of a critical polymer mixture which is imposed by laser illumination.…
We propose a combined analytical-numerical strategy to predict the dynamics and trajectory of a microswimmer next to a curved spherical obstacle. The microswimmer is actuated by a slip velocity on its surface and a uniformly valid solution…
The self-propelled motion of microscopic bodies immersed in a fluid medium is studied using molecular dynamics simulation. The advantage of the atomistic approach is that the detailed level of description allows complete freedom in…
Recent findings of possible applications of bio-friendly synthetic self-phoretic swimmers, have motivated the researchers in investigating the various motion-generating mechanisms to optimize the operating characteristics of the same. In…
The flow-driven transport of interacting micron-sized particles occurs in many soft matter systems spanning from the translocation of proteins to moving emulsions in microfluidic devices. Here we combine experiments and theory to…
Swimming microorganisms often have to propel in complex, non-Newtonian fluids. We carry out experiments with self-propelling helical swimmers driven by an externally rotating magnetic field in shear-thinning, inelastic fluids. Similarly to…
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…
We numerically study the escape kinetics of a self-propelled Janus particle, carrying a cargo, from a meta-stable state. We assume that the cargo is attached to the Janus particle by a flexible harmonic spring. We take into account the…
Swimming cells and microorganisms must often move though complex fluids that contain an immersed microstructure such as polymer molecules, or filaments. In many important biological processes, such as mammalian reproduction and bacterial…
We study the collective motion of confined spherical microswimmers such as active colloids which we model by so-called squirmers. To simulate hydrodynamic flow fields including thermal noise, we use the method of multi-particle collision…
We use the image solution technique to compute the leading order frequency-dependent self-mobility function of a small solid particle moving perpendicular to the surface of a spherical capsule whose membrane possesses shearing and bending…
Cells swimming in confined environments are attracted by surfaces. We measure the steady-state distribution of smooth-swimming bacteria (Escherichia coli) between two glass plates. In agreement with earlier studies, we find a strong…
We study the dynamical properties of an active particle subject to a swimming speed explicitly depending on the particle position. The oscillating spatial profile of the swim velocity considered in this paper takes inspiration from…