Boundaries Can Steer Active Janus Spheres

Condensed Matter journal club

Boundaries Can Steer Active Janus Spheres

  • Event time: 11:30am
  • Event date: 15th January 2016
  • Speaker: Joost de Graaf (Formerly School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
  • Location: Room 2511,

Event details

Abstract

The advent of autonomous self-propulsion has instigated research towards making colloidal machines that can deliver mechanical work in the form of transport, and other functions such as sensing and cleaning. While much progress has been made in the last 10 years on various mechanisms to generate self-propulsion, the ability to steer self-propelled colloidal devices has so far been much more limited. A critical barrier in increasing the impact of such motors is in directing their motion against the Brownian rotation, which randomizes particle orientations. In this context, here we report directed motion of a specific class of catalytic motors when moving in close proximity to solid surfaces. This is achieved through active quenching of their Brownian rotation by constraining it in a rotational well, caused not by equilibrium, but by hydrodynamic effects. We demonstrate how combining these geometric constraints can be utilized to steer these active colloids along arbitrary trajectories.
Nature Communications 6 Article Number 8999 (2015)
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Authors

Sambeeta Das, Astha Garg, Andrew I. Campbell, Jonathan Howse, Ayusman Sen, Darrell Velegol, Ramin Golestanian, Stephen J. Ebbens

About Condensed Matter journal club

Given the diversity of research in the CM group, chosen topics vary widely. We tend to stick to high-impact journals - Nature, Science, PNAS and PRL have been popular - but this is not prescriptive..

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