TY - JOUR
T1 - Electrotaxis of Self-Propelling Artificial Swimmers in Microchannels
AU - Buness, Carola M.
AU - Rana, Avi
AU - Maass, Corinna C.
AU - Dey, Ranabir
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 authors.
PY - 2024/10/7
Y1 - 2024/10/7
N2 - Biological microswimmers alter their swimming trajectories to follow the direction of an applied electric field, exhibiting electrotaxis. We show that synthetic active droplet microswimmers also autonomously change swimming trajectories in microchannels, even undergoing "U-Turns,"in response to an electric field, mimicking electrotaxis. We exploit such electrotaxis, in the presence of an external flow, to robustly tune the swimming trajectory of active droplets between wall-Adjacent, oscillatory, and channel centerline swimming. A general hydrodynamic model demonstrates that the electrotactic dynamics is governed by the electrical effects due to the swimmer's inherent surface charge, besides its motility, hydrodynamic wall interactions, and relative orientations of the electric field and imposed flow. Our study demonstrates a simple method for controlling active agents in complex geometries for microrobotic applications, like autonomous cargo delivery.
AB - Biological microswimmers alter their swimming trajectories to follow the direction of an applied electric field, exhibiting electrotaxis. We show that synthetic active droplet microswimmers also autonomously change swimming trajectories in microchannels, even undergoing "U-Turns,"in response to an electric field, mimicking electrotaxis. We exploit such electrotaxis, in the presence of an external flow, to robustly tune the swimming trajectory of active droplets between wall-Adjacent, oscillatory, and channel centerline swimming. A general hydrodynamic model demonstrates that the electrotactic dynamics is governed by the electrical effects due to the swimmer's inherent surface charge, besides its motility, hydrodynamic wall interactions, and relative orientations of the electric field and imposed flow. Our study demonstrates a simple method for controlling active agents in complex geometries for microrobotic applications, like autonomous cargo delivery.
KW - 2024 OA procedure
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85206307723&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.158301
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.158301
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85206307723
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 133
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 15
M1 - 158301
ER -