Microswimmers in Patterned Environments

We demonstrate with experiments and simulations how microscopic self-propelled particles navigate through environments presenting complex spatial features, which mimic the conditions inside cells, living organisms and future lab-on-a-chip devices. In particular, we show that, in the presence of periodic obstacles, microswimmers can steer even perpendicularly to an applied force. Since such behaviour is very sensitive to the details of their specific swimming style, it can be employed to develop advanced sorting, classification and dialysis techniques.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Dynamical clustering and phase separation in suspensions of self-propelled colloidal particles

We study experimentally and numerically a (quasi) two dimensional colloidal suspension of self-propelled spherical particles. The particles are carbon-coated Janus particles, which are propelled due to diffusiophoresis in a near-critical water-lutidine mixture. At low densities, we find that the driving stabilizes small clusters. At higher densities, the suspension undergoes a phase separation into large clusters and a dilute gas phase. The same qualitative behavior is observed in simulations of a minimal model for repulsive self-propelled particles lacking any alignment interactions. The observed behavior is rationalized in terms of a dynamical instability due to the self-trapping of self-propelled particles.Comment: 8 pages including supplemental information, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Sedimentation and Levitation of Catalytic Active Colloids

Gravitational effects in colloidal suspensions can be easily turned off by matching the density of the solid microparticles with the one of the surrounding fluid. By studying the motion of catalytic microswimmers with tunable buoyant weight, we show that this strategy cannot be adopted for active colloidal suspensions. If the average buoyant weight decreases, pronounced accumulation at the top wall of a sample cell is observed due to a counter-alignment of the swimming velocity with the gravitational field. Even when the particles reach a flat wall, gravitational torques still determine the properties of the quasi two-dimensional active motion. Our results highlight the subtle role of gravity in active systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Reply to Comment on "Circular Motion of Asymmetric Self-Propelling Particles"

In a Comment [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 029801 (2014)] on our Letter on self-propelled asymmetric particles [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 198302 (2013); arXiv:1302.5787], Felderhof claims that our theory based on Langevin equations would be conceptually wrong. In this Reply we show that our theory is appropriate, consistent, and physically justified.Comment: 2 page

Active Brownian Motion Tunable by Light

Active Brownian particles are capable of taking up energy from their environment and converting it into directed motion; examples range from chemotactic cells and bacteria to artificial micro-swimmers. We have recently demonstrated that Janus particles, i.e. gold-capped colloidal spheres, suspended in a critical binary liquid mixture perform active Brownian motion when illuminated by light. In this article, we investigate in some more details their swimming mechanism leading to active Brownian motion. We show that the illumination-borne heating induces a local asymmetric demixing of the binary mixture generating a spatial chemical concentration gradient, which is responsible for the particle's self-diffusiophoretic motion. We study this effect as a function of the functionalization of the gold cap, the particle size and the illumination intensity: the functionalization determines what component of the binary mixture is preferentially adsorbed at the cap and the swimming direction (towards or away from the cap); the particle size determines the rotational diffusion and, therefore, the random reorientation of the particle; and the intensity tunes the strength of the heating and, therefore, of the motion. Finally, we harness this dependence of the swimming strength on the illumination intensity to investigate the behaviour of a micro-swimmer in a spatial light gradient, where its swimming properties are space-dependent

Interfacial colloidal monolayers under steady shear: structure and flow profiles

We study the coupling between the structural dynamics and rheological response of charged colloidal monolayers at water/oil interfaces, driven into steady shear by a microdisk rotating at a controlled angular velocity. The flow causes particles to layer into rotating concentric rings linked to the local, position-dependent shear rate, which triggers two distinct dynamical regimes: particles move continuously "Flowing") close to the microdisk, or exhibit intermittent "Hopping" between local energy minima farther away. The shear-rate dependent surface viscosity of a monolayer can be extracted from an interfacial stress balance, giving "macroscopic" flow curves whose behavior corresponds to the distinct microscopic regimes of particle motion. Hopping Regions correspond to a surface yield stress $\eta \sim \tau_S^Y \dot{\gamma}^{-1}$, whereas Flowing Regions exhibit surface viscosities with power-law shear-thinning characteristics.Comment: Supplementary Materials also present. Soft Matter, 201

Microscale Marangoni Surfers

We apply laser light to induce the asymmetric heating of Janus colloids adsorbed at water-oil interfaces and realize active micrometric "Marangoni surfers". The coupling of temperature and surfactant concentration gradients generates Marangoni stresses leading to self-propulsion. Particle velocities span four orders of magnitude, from microns/s to cm/s, depending on laser power and surfactant concentration. Experiments are rationalized by finite elements simulations, defining different propulsion regimes relative to the magnitude of the thermal and solutal Marangoni stress components.Comment: main: 6 pages, 4 figures; supplemental: 18 pages, 11 figure

Island Hopping of active colloids

Individual self-propelled colloidal particles, like active Brownian particles (ABP) or run-and-tumble swimmers (RT), exhibit characteristic and well-known motion patterns. However, their interaction with obstacles remains an open and important problem. We here investigate the two-dimensional motion of silica-gold Janus particles (JP) actuated by AC electric fields and suspended and cruising through silica particles organized in rafts by mutual phoretic attraction. A typical island contains dozens of particles. The JP travels straight in obstacle-free regions and reorients systematically upon approaching an island. As an underlying mechanism, we tentatively propose a hydrodynamic torque exerted by the solvent flow towards the islands on the JP local flow field, leading to an alignment of respective solvent flow directions. This systematic behavior is in contrast with the reorientation observed for free active Brownian particles and run-and-tumble microswimmers.Comment: 13 pages,4 main figures, 2 supplementary figure

Active atoms and interstitials in two-dimensional colloidal crystals

We study experimentally and numerically the motion of a self-phoretic active particle in two-dimensional loosely packed colloidal crystals at fluid interfaces. Two scenarios emerge depending on the interactions between the active particle and the lattice: the active particle either navigates throughout the crystal as an interstitial or is part of the lattice and behaves as an active atom. Active interstitials undergo a run-and-tumble-like motion, with the passive colloids of the crystal acting as tumbling sites. Instead, active atoms exhibit an intermittent motion, stemming from the interplay between the periodic potential landscape of the passive crystal and the particle's self-propulsion. Our results constitute the first step towards the realization of non-close-packed crystalline phases with internal activity