Artificial Rheotaxis

Motility is a basic feature of living microorganisms, and how it works is often determined by environmental cues. Recent efforts have focused on develop- ing artificial systems that can mimic microorganisms, and in particular their self-propulsion. Here, we report on the design and characterization...

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Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Palacci, Jeremie, Sacanna, Stefano, Abrahmian, Anais, Barral, Jeremie, Hanson, Kasey, Grosberg, Alexander Y, Pine, David J, Chaikin, Paul M
Format Paper Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 19.05.2015
Subjects
Biomimetics
Mathematical models
Microorganisms
Pendulums
Physics - Soft Condensed Matter
Polarity
Stagnation point
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Summary:Motility is a basic feature of living microorganisms, and how it works is often determined by environmental cues. Recent efforts have focused on develop- ing artificial systems that can mimic microorganisms, and in particular their self-propulsion. Here, we report on the design and characterization of syn- thetic self-propelled particles that migrate upstream, known as positive rheo- taxis. This phenomenon results from a purely physical mechanism involving the interplay between the polarity of the particles and their alignment by a viscous torque. We show quantitative agreement between experimental data and a simple model of an overdamped Brownian pendulum. The model no- tably predicts the existence of a stagnation point in a diverging flow. We take advantage of this property to demonstrate that our active particles can sense and predictably organize in an imposed flow. Our colloidal system represents an important step towards the realization of biomimetic micro-systems withthe ability to sense and respond to environmental changes
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1505.05111