Active apolar doping determines routes to colloidal clusters and gels.

ABSTRACT: Collections of interacting active particles, self-propelling or not, have shown remarkable phenomena including the emergence of dynamic patterns across different length scales, from animal groups to vibrated grains, microtubules, bacteria, and chemical- or field-driven colloids. Burgeoning experimental and simulation activities are now exploring the possibility of realizing solid and stable structures from passive elements that are assembled by a few active dopants. Here we show that such an elusive task may be accomplished by using a small amount of apolar dopants, namely synthetic active but not self-propelling units. We use blue light to rapidly assemble 2D colloidal clusters and gels via nonequilibrium diffusiophoresis, where microscopic hematite dockers form long-living interstitial b

SUBMITTER: Massana-Cid H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6196537 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature