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Updated: Apr 21, 2026

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
From antinode clusters to node clusters: the concentration-dependent transition of floaters on a standing Faraday
Ceyda Sanlı1, Detlef Lohse1, Devaraj van der Meer1
1Physics of Fluids Group, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, J. M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, P. O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
A hydrophilic floating sphere that is denser than water drifts to an amplitude maximum (antinode) of a surface standing wave. A few identical floaters therefore organize into antinode clusters. However, beyond a transitional value of the floater concentration ϕ, we observe that the same spheres spontaneously accumulate at the nodal lines, completely inverting the self-organized particle pattern on the wave. From a potential energy estimate we show (i) that at low ϕ antinode clusters are energetically favorable over nodal ones and (ii) how this situation reverses at high ϕ, in agreement with the experiment.
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