Self-assembly of colloidal molecules due to self-generated flow
Soft Condensed Matter
2017-07-18 v1 Materials Science
Abstract
The emergence of structure through aggregation is a fascinating topic and of both fundamental and practical interest. Here we demonstrate that self-generated solvent flow can be used to generate long-range attractions on the colloidal scale, with sub-pico Newton forces extending into the millimeter-range. We observe a rich dynamic behavior with the formation and fusion of small clusters resembling molecules, the dynamics of which is governed by an effective conservative energy that decays as . Breaking the flow symmetry, these clusters can be made active.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1702.08020,
title = {Self-assembly of colloidal molecules due to self-generated flow},
author = {Ran Niu and Thomas Speck and Thomas Palberg},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.08020},
year = {2017}
}