Dynamics of active liquid interfaces

Abstract

Controlling interfaces of phase separating fluid mixtures is key to creating diverse functional soft materials. Traditionally, this is accomplished with surface-modifying chemical agents. Using experiment and theory, we study how mechanical activity shapes soft interfaces that separate an active and a passive fluid. Chaotic flows in the active fluid give rise to giant interfacial fluctuations and non-inertial propagating active waves. At high activities, stresses disrupt interface continuity and drive droplet generation, producing an emulsion-like active state comprised of finite-sized droplets. When in contact with a solid boundary, active interfaces exhibit non-equilibrium wetting transitions, wherein the fluid climbs the wall against gravity. These results demonstrate the promise of mechanically driven interfaces for creating a new class of soft active matter.

arXiv comment62 pages, 5 figures, 13 supplementary figures

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Cited by in corpus (28)

• Dynamics of active liquid interfaces
• A perspective on the microscopic pressure (stress) tensor: history, current understanding, and future challenges
• Nonreciprocal pattern formation of conserved fields
• Active phase separation: new phenomenology from non-equilibrium physics
• Activity-suppressed phase separation
• Rectified Rotational Dynamics of Mobile Inclusions in Two-Dimensional Active Nematics
• Phase Separation Driven by Active Flows
• Theory of Capillary Tension and Interfacial Dynamics of Motility-Induced Phases
• Active nematics on flat surfaces: from droplet motility and scission to active wetting
• Asymmetric fluctuations and self-folding of active interfaces
• Tuneable defect-curvature coupling and topological transitions in active shells
• Traveling waves at the surface of active liquid crystals
• Vorticity phase separation and defect lattices in the isotropic phase of active liquid crystals
• Hyperuniform interfaces in non-equilibrium phase coexistence
• Interface dynamics of wet active systems
• Deciphering the Scattering of Mechanically Driven Polymers using Deep Learning
• Phase Separation, Capillarity, and Odd Surface Flows in Chiral Active Matter
• Wetting by active fluids
• Cascades and Kolmogorov's lognormal scaling in two-dimensional bacterial turbulence
• Active fluids form system-spanning filamentary networks
• Phase Separation in Mixtures of Nematic and Isotropic Fluids
• Conservation laws and slow dynamics determine the universality class of interfaces in active matter
• What is active wetting?
• Interfacial instability of confined 3D active droplets
• Shape-specific fluctuations of an active colloidal interface
• Active particle in a very thin interfacial droplet
• Externally driven condensates show translation-induced polarization, directed coalescence, and anomalous diffusion in viscoelastic media
• Probing wetting properties with self-propelled droplets