Microscale Marangoni Surfers

Abstract

We apply laser light to induce the asymmetric heating of Janus colloids adsorbed at water-oil interfaces and realize active micrometric "Marangoni surfers". The coupling of temperature and surfactant concentration gradients generates Marangoni stresses leading to self-propulsion. Particle velocities span four orders of magnitude, from microns/s to cm/s, depending on laser power and surfactant concentration. Experiments are rationalized by finite elements simulations, defining different propulsion regimes relative to the magnitude of the thermal and solutal Marangoni stress components.

main: 6 pages, 4 figures; supplemental: 18 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (13)

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• Viscous Marangoni propulsion
• Tuning the motility and directionality of self-propelled colloids
• Thermally driven Marangoni surfers
• Visco-elastic drag forces and crossover from no-slip to slip boundary conditions for flow near air-water interfaces
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Cited by in corpus (12)

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• From diffusive mass transfer in Stokes flow to low Reynolds number Marangoni boats
• Active spheres induce Marangoni flows that drive collective dynamics
• Marangoni-Induced Reversal of Meniscus-Climbing Microdroplets
• Optical Micromanipulations based on Model Predictive Control of Thermoviscous Flows
• Light-Activated Motion, Geometry- and Confinement-Induced Optical Effects of 2D Platelets in a Nematic Liquid Crystal
• Modeling thermocapillary microgear rotation and transfer to translational particle propulsion
• Active particle in a very thin interfacial droplet
• Exact solutions for viscous Marangoni spreading