Self-assembly and complex manipulation of colloidal mesoscopic particles by active thermocapillary stress.

ABSTRACT: We demonstrate that the active thermocapillary stresses induced by multiple microbubbles offer simple routes to directed self-assembly and complex but controllable micromanipulation of mesoscopic colloidal particles embedded in a liquid. The microbubbles are nucleated on a liquid-glass interface using optical tweezers. The flow around a single bubble causes self-assembly of the particles in rings at the bubble-base, while an asymmetric temperature profile generated across the bubble interface breaks the azimuthal symmetry of the flow, and induces simultaneous accumulation and repulsion of particles at different axial planes with respect to the bubble. The flow due to two adjacent bubbles leads to more diverse effects including the sorting of particles, and to local vorticity that causes ra

SUBMITTER: Ghosh S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6582761 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature