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Reversible morphology-resolved chemotactic actuation and motion of Janus emulsion droplets

We report, for the first time, a chemotactic motion of emulsion droplets that can be controllably and reversibly altered. Our approach is based on using biphasic Janus emulsion droplets, where each phase responds differently to chemically induced interfacial tension gradients. By permanently breakin...

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Autores principales: Frank, Bradley D., Djalali, Saveh, Baryzewska, Agata W., Giusto, Paolo, Seeberger, Peter H., Zeininger, Lukas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9091213/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35538083
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30229-3
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author Frank, Bradley D.
Djalali, Saveh
Baryzewska, Agata W.
Giusto, Paolo
Seeberger, Peter H.
Zeininger, Lukas
author_facet Frank, Bradley D.
Djalali, Saveh
Baryzewska, Agata W.
Giusto, Paolo
Seeberger, Peter H.
Zeininger, Lukas
author_sort Frank, Bradley D.
collection PubMed
description We report, for the first time, a chemotactic motion of emulsion droplets that can be controllably and reversibly altered. Our approach is based on using biphasic Janus emulsion droplets, where each phase responds differently to chemically induced interfacial tension gradients. By permanently breaking the symmetry of the droplets’ geometry and composition, externally evoked gradients in surfactant concentration or effectiveness induce anisotropic Marangoni-type fluid flows adjacent to each of the two different exposed interfaces. Regulation of the competitive fluid convections then enables a controllable alteration of the speed and the direction of the droplets’ chemotactic motion. Our findings provide insight into how compositional anisotropy can affect the chemotactic behavior of purely liquid-based microswimmers. This has implications for the design of smart and adaptive soft microrobots that can autonomously regulate their response to changes in their chemical environment by chemotactically moving towards or away from a certain target, such as a bacterium.
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spelling pubmed-90912132022-05-12 Reversible morphology-resolved chemotactic actuation and motion of Janus emulsion droplets Frank, Bradley D. Djalali, Saveh Baryzewska, Agata W. Giusto, Paolo Seeberger, Peter H. Zeininger, Lukas Nat Commun Article We report, for the first time, a chemotactic motion of emulsion droplets that can be controllably and reversibly altered. Our approach is based on using biphasic Janus emulsion droplets, where each phase responds differently to chemically induced interfacial tension gradients. By permanently breaking the symmetry of the droplets’ geometry and composition, externally evoked gradients in surfactant concentration or effectiveness induce anisotropic Marangoni-type fluid flows adjacent to each of the two different exposed interfaces. Regulation of the competitive fluid convections then enables a controllable alteration of the speed and the direction of the droplets’ chemotactic motion. Our findings provide insight into how compositional anisotropy can affect the chemotactic behavior of purely liquid-based microswimmers. This has implications for the design of smart and adaptive soft microrobots that can autonomously regulate their response to changes in their chemical environment by chemotactically moving towards or away from a certain target, such as a bacterium. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-05-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9091213/ /pubmed/35538083 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30229-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Frank, Bradley D.
Djalali, Saveh
Baryzewska, Agata W.
Giusto, Paolo
Seeberger, Peter H.
Zeininger, Lukas
Reversible morphology-resolved chemotactic actuation and motion of Janus emulsion droplets
title Reversible morphology-resolved chemotactic actuation and motion of Janus emulsion droplets
title_full Reversible morphology-resolved chemotactic actuation and motion of Janus emulsion droplets
title_fullStr Reversible morphology-resolved chemotactic actuation and motion of Janus emulsion droplets
title_full_unstemmed Reversible morphology-resolved chemotactic actuation and motion of Janus emulsion droplets
title_short Reversible morphology-resolved chemotactic actuation and motion of Janus emulsion droplets
title_sort reversible morphology-resolved chemotactic actuation and motion of janus emulsion droplets
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9091213/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35538083
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30229-3
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