Related papers: Active Ionic Fluxes Induce Symmetry Breaking in Ch…
We experimentally investigate the dynamics of synthetic active particles composed of gravitationally bouncing, superwalking droplets confined within an annular fluid bath. Driven by a topologically pumping dual-frequency waveform, the…
To explore and react to their environment, living micro-swimmers have developed sophisticated strategies for locomotion - in particular, motility with multiple gaits. To understand the physical principles associated with such a behavioural…
Active droplets are artificial microswimmers built from a liquid dispersion by microfluidic tools and showing self-propelled motion. These systems hold particular interest for mimicking biological phenomena, such as some aspects of cell…
Nanofluidic systems show great promises for applications in energy conversion, where their performance can be enhanced by nanoscale liquid-solid slip. However, efficiency is also controlled by surface charge, which is known to reduce slip.…
Ion channels are proteins with a hole down the middle embedded in cell membranes. Membranes form insulating structures and the channels through them allow and control the movement of charged particles, spherical ions, mostly Na+, K+, Ca++,…
It has been suggested that microtubules and other cytoskeletal filaments may act as electrical transmission lines. An electrical circuit model of the microtubule is constructed incorporating features of its cylindrical structure with…
Molecular Dynamics simulations of water molecules in nanometre sized cylindrical channels connecting two reservoirs show that the permeation of water is very sensitive to the channel radius and to electric polarization of the embedding…
The confinement of an ionic liquid between charged solid surfaces is treated using an exactly solvable 1D Coulomb gas model. The theory highlights the importance of two dimensionless parameters: the fugacity of the ionic liquid, and the…
We investigate through non-equilibrium Molecular Dynamics simulations the structure and flow of fluids in functionalized nanopores. The nanopores are modeled as cylindrical structures with solvophilic and solvophobic sites. Two fluids are…
Two recent experimental (Li, J.~\emphj{et al}, \emph{Proc.\ Natl.\ Acad.\ Sci.\ U.~S.~A.} {\bf 2014}, 111, 1282-1287) and theoretical studies (B\^aldea, I, \emph{Phys.\ Chem.\ Chem.\ Phys.}\ {\bf 2014}, 16, 25942-25949) have addressed the…
We combine quantum-chemical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations to consider aqueous ion flow across non-axisymmetric nanopores in monolayer graphene and MoS$_2$. When the pore-containing membrane is subject to uniaxial tensile…
Current theories of nanochannel flow impose no upper bound on flow rates, and predict friction through nanochannels can be vanishingly small. We reassess neglecting channel entry effects in extremely long channels and find violations at the…
We report spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) phenomena in symmetrically charged binary particle systems under planar nanoconfinement with negative dielectric constants.The SSB is triggered $solely$ via the dielectric confinement effect,…
Like air flowing over a wing, optimizing the flow of electronic charge is essential to the operation of nanoscale devices. Unfortunately, the delicate interplay of charge, spin, and heat in complex devices has precluded detailed imaging of…
The tendency for flows in microfluidic systems to behave linearly poses a challenge for designing integrated flow control schemes to carry out complex fluid processing tasks. This hindrance has led to the use of numerous external control…
We propose a mechanism to control the formation of stable obstructions in two-dimensional micro-channels of variable sections taking advantage of the peculiar clustering property of active systems. Under the activation of the…
We numerically solve the active nematohydrodynamic equations of motion, coupled to a Turing reaction-diffusion model, to study the effect of active nematic flow on the stripe patterns resulting from a Turing instability. If the activity is…
We study the structure and dynamics of the interface separating a passive fluid from a microtubule-based active fluid. Turbulent-like active flows power giant interfacial fluctuations, which exhibit pronounced asymmetry between regions of…
Microswimmers and active colloids often move in confined systems, including those involving interfaces. Such interfaces, especially at the microscale, may deform in response to the stresses of the flow created by the active particle. We…
The interaction between two chemically identical charge-regulated surfaces is studied using the classical density functional theory. In contrast to common expectations and assumptions, under certain realistic conditions we find a…