130 research outputs found
Concentration Dependen Sedimentation of Collidal Rods
In the first part of this paper, an approximate theory is developed for the
leading order concentration dependence of the sedimentation coefficient for
rod-like colloids/polymers/macromolecules. To first order in volume fraction
of rods, the sedimentation coefficient is written as .
For large aspect ratio L/D (L is the rod length, D it's thickness) is
found to very like . This
theoretical prediction is compared to experimental results. In the second part,
experiments on {\it fd}-virus are described, both in the isotropic and nematic
phase. First order in concentration results for this very long and thin
(semi-flexible) rod are in agreement with the above theoretical prediction.
Sedimentation profiles for the nematic phase show two sedimentation fronts.
This result indicates that the nematic phase becomes unstable with the respect
to isotropic phase during sedimentation.Comment: Submitted to J. Chem. Phys. See related webpage
http://www.elsie.brandeis.ed
Trains, tails and loops of partially adsorbed semi-flexible filaments
Polymer adsorption is a fundamental problem in statistical mechanics that has
direct relevance to diverse disciplines ranging from biological lubrication to
stability of colloidal suspensions. We combine experiments with computer
simulations to investigate depletion induced adsorption of semi-flexible
polymers onto a hard-wall. Three dimensional filament configurations of
partially adsorbed F-actin polymers are visualized with total internal
reflection fluorescence microscopy. This information is used to determine the
location of the adsorption/desorption transition and extract the statistics of
trains, tails and loops of partially adsorbed filament configurations. In
contrast to long flexible filaments which primarily desorb by the formation of
loops, the desorption of stiff, finite-sized filaments is largely driven by
fluctuating filament tails. Simulations quantitatively reproduce our
experimental data and allow us to extract universal laws that explain scaling
of the adsorption-desorption transition with relevant microscopic parameters.
Our results demonstrate how the adhesion strength, filament stiffness, length,
as well as the configurational space accessible to the desorbed filament can be
used to design the characteristics of filament adsorption and thus engineer
properties of composite biopolymeric materials
Counterion-Mediated Attraction and Kinks on Loops of Semiflexible Polyelectrolyte Bundles
The formation of kinks in a loop of bundled polyelectrolyte filaments is analyzed in terms of the thermal fluctuations of charge density due to polyvalent counterions adsorbed on the polyelectrolyte filaments. It is found that the counterion-mediated attraction energy of filaments depends on their bending. By consideration of curvature elasticity energy and counterion-mediated attraction between polyelectrolyte filaments, the characteristic width of the kink and the number of kinks per loop is found to be in reasonable agreement with existing experimental data for rings of bundled actin filaments
Self-diffusion of Rod-like Viruses Through Smectic Layer
We report the direct visualization at the scale of single particles of mass
transport between smectic layers, also called permeation, in a suspension of
rod-like viruses. Self-diffusion takes place preferentially in the direction
normal to the smectic layers, and occurs by quasi-quantized steps of one rod
length. The diffusion rate corresponds with the rate calculated from the
diffusion in the nematic state with a lamellar periodic ordering potential that
is obtained experimentally.Comment: latex, 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev. Let
Statistical properties of autonomous flows in 2D active nematics
We study the dynamics of a tunable 2D active nematic liquid crystal composed of microtubules and kinesin motors confined to an oil–water interface. Kinesin motors continuously inject mechanical energy into the system through ATP hydrolysis, powering the relative microscopic sliding of adjacent microtubules, which in turn generates macroscale autonomous flows and chaotic dynamics. We use particle image velocimetry to quantify two-dimensional flows of active nematics and extract their statistical properties. In agreement with the hydrodynamic theory, we find that the vortex areas comprising the chaotic flows are exponentially distributed, which allows us to extract the characteristic system length scale. We probe the dependence of this length scale on the ATP concentration, which is the experimental knob that tunes the magnitude of the active stress. Our data suggest a possible mapping between the ATP concentration and the active stress that is based on the Michaelis–Menten kinetics that governs the motion of individual kinesin motors.Theoretical Physic
Defect-mediated dynamics of coherent structures in active nematics
Theoretical Physic
The pair potential of colloidal stars
We report on the construction of colloidal stars: 1 micrometer polystyrene
beads grafted with a dense brush of 1 micrometer long and 10 nm wide
semi-flexible filamentous viruses. The pair interaction potentials of colloidal
stars are measured using an experimental implementation of umbrella sampling, a
technique originally developed in computer simulations in order to probe rare
events. The influence of ionic strength and grafting density on the interaction
is measured. Good agreements are found between the measured interactions and
theoretical predictions based upon the osmotic pressure of counterions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Changed conten
Nematic Ordering of Rigid Rods in a Gravitational Field
The isotropic-to-nematic transition in an athermal solution of long rigid
rods subject to a gravitational (or centrifugal) field is theoretically
considered in the Onsager approximation. The new feature emerging in the
presence of gravity is a concentration gradient which coupled with the nematic
ordering. For rodlike molecules this effect becomes noticeable at centrifugal
acceleration g ~ 10^3--10^4 m/s^2, while for biological rodlike objects, such
as tobacco mosaic virus, TMV, the effect is important even for normal
gravitational acceleration conditions. Rods are concentrated near the bottom of
the vessel which sometimes leads to gravity induced nematic ordering. The
concentration range corresponding to phase separation increases with increasing
g. In the region of phase separation the local rod concentration, as well as
the order parameter, follow a step function with height.Comment: Full article http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v60/i3/p2973_
Vortices in vibrated granular rods
We report the experimental observation of novel vortex patterns in vertically
vibrated granular rods. Above a critical packing fraction, moving ordered
domains of nearly vertical rods spontaneously form and coexist with horizontal
rods. The domains of vertical rods coarsen in time to form large vortices. We
investigate the conditions under which the vortices occur by varying the number
of rods, vibration amplitude and frequency. The size of the vortices increases
with the number of rods. We characterize the growth of the ordered domains by
measuring the area fraction of the ordered regions as a function of time. A
{\em void filling} model is presented to describe the nucleation and growth of
the vertical domains. We track the ends of the vertical rods and obtain the
velocity fields of the vortices. The rotation speed of the rods is observed to
depend on the vibration velocity of the container and on the packing. To
investigate the impact of the direction of driving on the observed phenomena,
we performed experiments with the container vibrated horizontally. Although
vertical domains form, vortices are not observed. We therefore argue that the
motion is generated due to the interaction of the inclination of the rods with
the bottom of a vertically vibrated container. We also perform simple
experiments with a single row of rods in an annulus. These experiments directly
demonstrate that the rod motion is generated when the rods are inclined from
the vertical, and is always in the direction of the inclination.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figure, 2 movies at http://physics.clarku.edu/vortex uses
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