The efficiency of self-phoretic propulsion mechanisms with surface reaction heterogeneity.

We consider the efficiency of self-phoretic colloidal particles (swimmers) as a function of the heterogeneity in the surface reaction rate. The set of fluid, species, and electrostatic continuity equations is solved analytically using a linearization and numerically using a finite-element method. To compare spherical swimmers of different size and with heterogeneous catalytic conversion rates, a "swimmer efficiency" functional η is introduced. It is proven that in order to obtain maximum swimmer efficiency, the reactivity has to be localized at the pole(s). Our results also shed light on the sensitivity of the propulsion speed to details of the surface reactivity, a property that is notoriously hard to measure. This insight can be utilized in the design of new self-phoretic swimmers.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  Journal of Chemical Physics

• Publication date

  2016-02-25

• Fields of study

  Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1063/1.4951699arXiv 1602.07883PMID 27250326
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Geometrical Performance of Self-Phoretic Colloids and Microswimmers.

  2016cited by this paper
• Self-Propelled Enzyme-Based Motors for Smart Mobile Electrochemical and Optical Biosensing.

  2015cited by this paper
• Biogenic mixing induced by intermediate Reynolds number swimming in stratified fluids

  2015cited by this paper
• Autophoretic locomotion from geometric asymmetry

  2015cited by this paper
• Chemically powered micro- and nanomotors.

  2015cited by this paper
• Non-spherical osmotic motor: chemical sailing

  2014cited by this paper
• Diffusiophoretic Self-Propulsion for Partially Catalytic Spherical Colloids

  2014cited by this paper
• Effect of surfactants on the performance of tubular and spherical micromotors - a comparative study.

  2014cited by this paper
• Self-powered enzyme micropumps.

  2014cited by this paper
• Acoustic propulsion of nanorod motors inside living cells.

  2014cited by this paper
• Motility-Induced Phase Separation

  2014cited by this paper
• Self-Propelling Nanomotors in the Presence of Strong Brownian Forces

  2014cited by this paper
• Synthetic micro/nanomotors in drug delivery.

  2014cited by this paper
• Soft Matter

  2014cited by this paper
• Hydrodynamics of soft active matter

  2013cited by this paper
• Fluid mixing by curved trajectories of microswimmers.

  2013cited by this paper
• Transport phenomena and dynamics of externally and self-propelled colloids in confined geometry

  2013cited by this paper
• Understanding the efficiency of autonomous nano- and microscale motors.

  2013cited by this paper
• Small power: Autonomous nano- and micromotors propelled by self-generated gradients

  2013cited by this paper
• Diffusiophoretic self-propulsion of colloids driven by a surface reaction: The sub-micron particle regime for exponential and van der Waals interactions

  2013cited by this paper
• Ionic effects in self-propelled Pt-coated Janus swimmers.

  2013cited by this paper
• Dynamical clustering and phase separation in suspensions of self-propelled colloidal particles.

  2013cited by this paper
• Electrokinetic effects in catalytic platinum-insulator Janus swimmers

  2013cited by this paper
• I and J

  2012influential reference
• Diffusive transport without detailed balance in motile bacteria: does microbiology need statistical physics?

  2012cited by this paper
• Cargo-towing fuel-free magnetic nanoswimmers for targeted drug delivery.

  2012cited by this paper
• Size dependence of the propulsion velocity for catalytic Janus-sphere swimmers.

  2012cited by this paper
• Catalytic Janus motors on microfluidic chip: deterministic motion for targeted cargo delivery.

  2012cited by this paper
• Fantastic voyage: designing self-powered nanorobots.

  2012cited by this paper
• Nonlinear, electrocatalytic swimming in the presence of salt.

  2012cited by this paper
• Dynamics and efficiency of a self-propelled, diffusiophoretic swimmer.

  2011cited by this paper
• Biomimetic behavior of synthetic particles: from microscopic randomness to macroscopic control.

  2010cited by this paper
• Phoretic motion of spheroidal particles due to self-generated solute gradients

  2010cited by this paper
• Microrobots for minimally invasive medicine.

  2010cited by this paper
• Particle motion driven by solute gradients with application to autonomous motion: continuum and colloidal perspectives

  2010cited by this paper
• Efficiency of surface-driven motion: nanoswimmers beat microswimmers.

  2010cited by this paper
• Locomotion of electrocatalytic nanomotors due to reaction induced charge autoelectrophoresis.

  2010cited by this paper
• Catalytic nanomotors: self-propelled sphere dimers.

  2010cited by this paper
• Swimmer-tracer scattering at low Reynolds number

  2010cited by this paper
• Drop-off of colloidal cargo transported by catalytic Pt-Au nanomotors via photochemical stimuli.

  2010cited by this paper
• The Mechanics and Statistics of Active Matter

  2010cited by this paper
• In pursuit of propulsion at the nanoscale

  2010cited by this paper
• Electrokinetic locomotion due to reaction-induced charge auto-electrophoresis

  2010cited by this paper
• Asymmetric Pt/Au coated catalytic micromotors fabricated by dynamic shadowing growth

  2010cited by this paper
• Rapid delivery of drug carriers propelled and navigated by catalytic nanoshuttles.

  2010cited by this paper
• Instabilities, pattern formation and mixing in active suspensions

  2008cited by this paper
• Designing phoretic micro- and nano-swimmers

  2007cited by this paper
• Self-motile colloidal particles: from directed propulsion to random walk.

  2007cited by this paper
• Controlled mixing in microfluidic systems using bacterial chemotaxis.

  2007cited by this paper
• Autonomously moving nanorods at a viscous interface.

  2006cited by this paper
• Bipolar electrochemical mechanism for the propulsion of catalytic nanomotors in hydrogen peroxide solutions.

  2006cited by this paper
• Transport and collective dynamics in suspensions of confined swimming particles.

  2005cited by this paper
• Motility of catalytic nanoparticles through self-generated forces.

  2005cited by this paper
• Enhanced diffusion due to motile bacteria

  2004cited by this paper
• Catalytic nanomotors: autonomous movement of striped nanorods.

  2004cited by this paper
• Transformation of chlorinated methanes by nanoscale iron particles

  1999cited by this paper
• Temperature Dependence of Oxygen Diffusion in H2O and D2O

  1996cited by this paper
• CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

  1990cited by this paper
• Colloid Transport by Interfacial Forces

  1989cited by this paper
• DIFFUSION COEFFICIENT OF OXYGEN IN LIQUIDS

  1983cited by this paper

• Efficient propulsion of an electrocatalytic micromotor in a viscoelastic medium

  2026cites this paper
• Programmable Hydrodynamics of Active Particles

  2025influential citation
• Active Quantum Biomaterials‐Enhanced Microrobots for Food Safety

  2024cites this paper
• Low efficiency of Janus microswimmers as hydrodynamic mixers.

  2024cites this paper
• Theoretical modeling of catalytic self-propulsion

  2022cites this paper
• Beyond Janus Geometry: Characterization of Flow Fields around Nonspherical Photocatalytic Microswimmers

  2021cites this paper
• Highly Efficient Active Colloids Driven by Galvanic Exchange Reactions.

  2021cites this paper
• Static and dynamic behavior of magnetic particles at fluid interfaces.

  2020cites this paper
• Simulating squirmers with volumetric solvers

  2019cites this paper
• Self-thermoelectrophoresis at low salinity.

  2019cites this paper
• Controlling the structure and mixing properties of anisotropic active particles with the direction of self-propulsion.

  2019cites this paper
• Numerical Simulations of Active Brownian Particles

  2019cites this paper
• Artificial molecular and nanostructures for advanced nanomachinery.

  2018cites this paper
• Activated micromotor propulsion by enzyme catalysis in a biofluid medium

  2018influential citation
• Experimental observation of flow fields around active Janus spheres

  2018cites this paper
• Which interactions dominate in active colloids?

  2018cites this paper
• A Predictive Model for Convective Flows Induced by Surface Reactivity Contrast

  2017cites this paper
• Stratification and Size Segregation of Ternary and Polydisperse Colloidal Suspensions during Drying.

  2017cites this paper
• Ionic screening and dissociation are crucial for understanding chemical self-propulsion in polar solvents.

  2017cites this paper
• Phoretic motion of soft vesicles and droplets: an XFEM/particle-based numerical solution

  2017cites this paper
• The Self-Propulsion of the Spherical Pt–SiO2 Janus Micro-Motor

  2017cites this paper
• Moving charged particles in lattice Boltzmann-based electrokinetics.

  2016cites this paper
• Reducing spurious flow in simulations of electrokinetic phenomena.

  2016cites this paper
• Nanoparticle Translocation through Conical Nanopores: A Finite Element Study of Electrokinetic Transport

  2016cites this paper
• Microfluidic pumping by micromolar salt concentrations.

  2016cites this paper