Stiffness-guided motion of a droplet on a solid substrate

Abstract

A range of technologies require the directed motion of nanoscale droplets on solid substrates. A way of realizing this effect is durotaxis, whereby a stiffness gradient of a substrate can induce directional motion without requiring an energy source. Here, we report on the results of extensive molecular dynamics investigations of droplets on a surface with varying stiffness. We find that durotaxis is enhanced by increasing the stiffness gradient and, also, by increased wettability of the substrate, in particular, when droplet size decreases. We anticipate that our study will provide further insights into the mechanisms of nanoscale directional motion.

References in corpus (2)

• Carbon Nanotube Electron Windmills: A Novel Design for Nanomotors
• Correlation between surface topography and slippage: a Molecular Dynamics study

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Unidirectional Droplet Propulsion onto Gradient Brushes without External Energy Supply
• Coalescence of sessile polymer droplets: A molecular dynamics study
• Antidurotaxis Droplet Motion onto Gradient Brush Substrates
• Durotaxis and antidurotaxis droplet motion onto gradient gel-substrates
• Directed droplet motion -- Its versatile nature and anticipated applications