Microscopic and continuum descriptions of Janus motor fluid flow fields

Abstract

Active media, whose constituents are able to move autonomously, display novel features that differ from those of equilibrium systems. In addition to naturally-occurring active systems such as populations of swimming bacteria, active systems of synthetic self-propelled nanomotors have been developed. These synthetic systems are interesting because of their potential applications in a variety of fields. Janus particles, synthetic motors of spherical geometry with one hemisphere that catalyzes the conversion of fuel to product and one noncatalytic hemisphere, can propel themselves in solution by self-diffusiophoresis. In this mechanism the concentration gradient generated by the asymmetric catalytic activity leads to a force on the motor that induces fluid flows in the surrounding medium. These fluid flows are studied in detail through microscopic simulations of Janus motor motion and continuum theory. It is shown that continuum theory is able to capture many but not all features of the dynamics of the Janus motor and the velocity fields of the fluid.

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Experimental Observation of Flow Fields Around Active Janus Spheres
• Which Interactions Dominate in Active Colloids?
• Autophoretic motion in three dimensions
• Chemotactic and hydrodynamic effects on collective dynamics of self-diffusiophoretic Janus motors
• Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of chemically-powered synthetic nanomotors
• Single particle motion and collective dynamics in Janus motor systems
• Mesoscopic simulations of anisotropic chemically-powered nanomotors
• The non-equilibrium thermodynamics of active suspensions