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Guiding microscale swimmers using teardrop-shaped posts.
Megan S Davies Wykes1, Xiao Zhong2, Jiajun Tong1
1Applied Mathematics Laboratory, Courant Institute, New York University, USA. megan.davieswykes@cantab.net.
Soft Matter
|May 4, 2017
Summary
Artificial nanorod swimmers achieve directed motion using teardrop-shaped posts. This geometric method biases movement, enabling speed-based sorting and cargo transport.
Area of Science:
- Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science
- Microscale robotics and self-propulsion
Background:
- Microscale swimmers, both biological and artificial, often exhibit random motion due to thermal fluctuations.
- Directed motion is crucial for biological organisms (e.g., bacteria) and desired for artificial systems.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate a purely geometric method for biasing the motion of artificial nanorod swimmers.
- To explore the use of specifically shaped posts to control swimmer directionality.
Main Methods:
- Utilized bimetallic nanorod swimmers powered by chemical fuel.
- Designed a substrate with teardrop-shaped posts to interact hydrodynamically with the swimmers.
- Analyzed swimmer behavior, focusing on departure rates from different post curvatures.
Main Results:
- Artificial swimmers exhibited hydrodynamic attraction to the posts, following their perimeter.
- A higher departure rate was observed from the higher curvature end of the teardrop posts, inducing motion bias.
- Bias increased with swimmer speed and could be amplified using aligned post arrays.
Conclusions:
- Geometric design of posts offers a novel, fuel-independent strategy for controlling artificial swimmer motion.
- This method allows for concentration and speed-based sorting of microscale swimmers.
- Potential applications include cargo transport and targeted delivery by artificial swimmers.
