Stochastic dynamics of dissolving active particles
Authors
Chamolly, Alexander
Lauga, Eric
Publication Date
2019-07-16Journal Title
The European Physical Journal E
ISSN
1292-8941
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Volume
42
Issue
7
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Chamolly, A., & Lauga, E. (2019). Stochastic dynamics of dissolving active particles. The European Physical Journal E, 42 (7) https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2019-11854-3
Abstract
Abstract.: The design of artificial microswimmers has generated significant research interest in recent years, for promise in applications such as nanomotors and targeted drug-delivery. However, many current designs suffer from a common problem, namely the swimmers remain in the fluid indefinitely, posing risks of clogging and damage. Inspired by recently proposed experimental designs, we investigate mathematically the dynamics of degradable active particles. We develop and compare two distinct chemical models for the decay of a swimmer, taking into account the material composition and nature of the chemical or enzymatic reaction at its surface. These include a model for dissolution without a reaction, as well as models for a reacting swimmer studied in the limit of large and small Damköhler number. A new dimensionless parameter emerges that allows the classification of colloids into ballistic and diffusive type. Using this parameter, we perform an asymptotic analysis to derive expressions for colloid lifetimes and their total mean squared displacement from release and validate these by numerical Monte Carlo simulations of the associated Langevin dynamics. Supported by general scaling relationships, our theoretical results provide new insight into the experimental applicability of a wide range of designs for degradable active colloids. Graphical abstract:
Keywords
Regular Article, Soft Matter: Colloids and Nanoparticles
Identifiers
i2019-11854-3, 11854
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2019-11854-3
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/307995
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Licence URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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