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Self‐Solidifying Active Droplets Showing Memory‐Induced Chirality

Most synthetic microswimmers do not reach the autonomy of their biological counterparts in terms of energy supply and diversity of motions. Here, this work reports the first all‐aqueous droplet swimmer powered by self‐generated polyelectrolyte gradients, which shows memory‐induced chirality while se...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Feng, Kai, Ureña Marcos, José Carlos, Mukhopadhyay, Aritra K., Niu, Ran, Zhao, Qiang, Qu, Jinping, Liebchen, Benno
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10520641/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37526332
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202300866
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author Feng, Kai
Ureña Marcos, José Carlos
Mukhopadhyay, Aritra K.
Niu, Ran
Zhao, Qiang
Qu, Jinping
Liebchen, Benno
author_facet Feng, Kai
Ureña Marcos, José Carlos
Mukhopadhyay, Aritra K.
Niu, Ran
Zhao, Qiang
Qu, Jinping
Liebchen, Benno
author_sort Feng, Kai
collection PubMed
description Most synthetic microswimmers do not reach the autonomy of their biological counterparts in terms of energy supply and diversity of motions. Here, this work reports the first all‐aqueous droplet swimmer powered by self‐generated polyelectrolyte gradients, which shows memory‐induced chirality while self‐solidifying. An aqueous solution of surface tension–lowering polyelectrolytes self‐solidifies on the surface of acidic water, during which polyelectrolytes are gradually emitted into the surrounding water and induce linear self‐propulsion via spontaneous symmetry breaking. The low diffusion coefficient of the polyelectrolytes leads to long‐lived chemical trails which cause memory effects that drive a transition from linear to chiral motion without requiring any imposed symmetry breaking. The droplet swimmer is capable of highly efficient removal (up to 85%) of uranium from aqueous solutions within 90 min, benefiting from self‐propulsion and flow‐induced mixing. These results provide a route to fueling self‐propelled agents which can autonomously perform chiral motion and collect toxins.
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spelling pubmed-105206412023-09-27 Self‐Solidifying Active Droplets Showing Memory‐Induced Chirality Feng, Kai Ureña Marcos, José Carlos Mukhopadhyay, Aritra K. Niu, Ran Zhao, Qiang Qu, Jinping Liebchen, Benno Adv Sci (Weinh) Research Articles Most synthetic microswimmers do not reach the autonomy of their biological counterparts in terms of energy supply and diversity of motions. Here, this work reports the first all‐aqueous droplet swimmer powered by self‐generated polyelectrolyte gradients, which shows memory‐induced chirality while self‐solidifying. An aqueous solution of surface tension–lowering polyelectrolytes self‐solidifies on the surface of acidic water, during which polyelectrolytes are gradually emitted into the surrounding water and induce linear self‐propulsion via spontaneous symmetry breaking. The low diffusion coefficient of the polyelectrolytes leads to long‐lived chemical trails which cause memory effects that drive a transition from linear to chiral motion without requiring any imposed symmetry breaking. The droplet swimmer is capable of highly efficient removal (up to 85%) of uranium from aqueous solutions within 90 min, benefiting from self‐propulsion and flow‐induced mixing. These results provide a route to fueling self‐propelled agents which can autonomously perform chiral motion and collect toxins. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023-08-01 /pmc/articles/PMC10520641/ /pubmed/37526332 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202300866 Text en © 2023 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Feng, Kai
Ureña Marcos, José Carlos
Mukhopadhyay, Aritra K.
Niu, Ran
Zhao, Qiang
Qu, Jinping
Liebchen, Benno
Self‐Solidifying Active Droplets Showing Memory‐Induced Chirality
title Self‐Solidifying Active Droplets Showing Memory‐Induced Chirality
title_full Self‐Solidifying Active Droplets Showing Memory‐Induced Chirality
title_fullStr Self‐Solidifying Active Droplets Showing Memory‐Induced Chirality
title_full_unstemmed Self‐Solidifying Active Droplets Showing Memory‐Induced Chirality
title_short Self‐Solidifying Active Droplets Showing Memory‐Induced Chirality
title_sort self‐solidifying active droplets showing memory‐induced chirality
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10520641/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37526332
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/advs.202300866
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