No Arabic abstract
We investigate CO$_2$-driven diffusiophoresis of colloidal particles and bacterial cells in a Hele-Shaw geometry. Combining experiments and a model, we understand the characteristic length and time scales of CO$_2$-driven diffusiophoresis in relation to system dimensions and CO$_2$ diffusivity. Directional migration of wild-type V. cholerae and a mutant lacking flagella, as well as S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, near a dissolving CO$_2$ source shows that diffusiophoresis of bacteria is achieved independent of cell shape and Gram stain. Long-time experiments suggest possible applications for bacterial diffusiophoresis to cleaning systems or anti-biofouling surfaces.
Near field hydrodynamic interactions are essential to determine many important emergent behaviors observed in active suspensions, but have not been successfully modeled so far. In this work we propose an effective model capable of efficiently capturing the essence of the near field hydrodynamic interactions, validated numerically by a pedagogic model system consisting of an E. coli and a spherical tracer. The proposed model effectively captures all the details of near field hydrodynamics through only a tensorial coefficient of resistance, which is fundamentally different from, and thus cannot be replaced by, an effective interaction of conservative nature. In a critical test case that studies the scattering angle of the bacterium-tracer pair dynamics, calculations based on the proposed model reveals a region in parameter space where the bacterium is trapped by the spherical tracer, a phenomenon that is regularly observed in experiments but cannot be explained by any existing model.
We report an empirical power law for the reduction of network permeability in statistically homogeneous spatial networks upon removal of a single edge. We characterize this power law for plexus-like microvascular sinusoidal networks from liver tissue, as well as perturbed two- and three-dimensional regular lattices. We provide a heuristic argument for the observed power law by mapping arbitrary spatial networks that satisfies Darcys law on an small-scale resistor network.
We identify a structural one-body force field that sustains spatial inhomogeneities in nonequilibrium overdamped Brownian many-body systems. The structural force is perpendicular to the local flow direction, it is free of viscous dissipation, it is microscopically resolved in both space and and time, and it can stabilize density gradients. From the time evolution in the exact (Smoluchowski) low-density limit, Brownian dynamics simulations and a novel power functional approximation, we obtain a quantitative understanding of viscous and structural forces, including memory and shear migration.
As a natural and functional behavior, various microorganisms exhibit gravitaxis by orienting and swimming upwards against gravity. Swimming autophoretic nanomotors described herein, comprising bimetallic nanorods, preferentially orient upwards and swim up along a wall, when tail-heavy (i.e. when the density of one of the metals is larger than the other). Through experiment and theory, two mechanisms were identified that contribute to this gravitactic behavior. First, a buoyancy or gravitational torque acts on these rods to align them upwards. Second, hydrodynamic interactions of the rod with the inclined wall induce a fore-aft drag asymmetry on the rods that reinforces their orientation bias and promotes their upward motion.
The design of artificial microswimmers is often inspired by the strategies of natural microorganisms. Many of these creatures exploit the fact that elasticity breaks the time-reversal symmetry of motion at low Reynolds numbers, but this principle has been notably absent from model systems of active, self-propelled microswimmers. Here we introduce a class of microswimmer that spontaneously self-assembles and swims without using external forces, driven instead by surface phase transitions induced by temperature variations. The swimmers are made from alkane droplets dispersed in aqueous surfactant solution, which start to self-propel upon cooling, pushed by rapidly growing thin elastic tails. When heated, the same droplets recharge by retracting their tails, swimming for up to tens of minutes in each cycle. Thermal oscillations of approximately 5 degrees Celsius induce the swimmers to harness heat from the environment and recharge multiple times. We develop a detailed elastohydrodynamic model of these processes and highlight the molecular mechanisms involved. The system offers a convenient platform for examining symmetry breaking in the motion of swimmers exploiting flagellar elasticity. The mild conditions and biocompatible media render these microswimmers potential probes for studying biological propulsion and interactions between artificial and biological swimmers.