Oscillatory rheotaxis of artificial swimmers in microchannels.

ABSTRACT: Biological microswimmers navigate upstream of an external flow with trajectories ranging from linear to spiralling and oscillatory. Such a rheotactic response primarily stems from the hydrodynamic interactions triggered by the complex shapes of the microswimmers, such as flagellar chirality. We show here that a self-propelling droplet exhibits oscillatory rheotaxis in a microchannel, despite its simple spherical geometry. Such behaviour has been previously unobserved in artificial swimmers. Comparing our experiments to a purely hydrodynamic theory model, we demonstrate that the oscillatory rheotaxis of the droplet is primarily governed by both the shear flow characteristics and the interaction of the finite-sized microswimmer with all four microchannel walls. The dynamics can be controlled

SUBMITTER: Dey R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9135748 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature