Physical Review Letters· 2013Q1
Dynamical Clustering and Phase Separation in Suspensions of Self-Propelled Colloidal Particles
- 1,176citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2013year
Short summary
Self-propelled colloidal particles in a near-critical fluid spontaneously form clusters and undergo phase separation into dense and dilute regions, driven by a dynamical instability rather than alignment.
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Key points
- Self-propelled Janus particles in a near-critical fluid exhibit spontaneous clustering and phase separation.
- Low particle densities lead to stable small clusters; high densities result in separation into large clusters and a dilute gas.
- The observed behavior is reproduced in simulations of a minimal model lacking alignment interactions.
- The phenomenon is explained by a dynamical instability caused by self-trapping of the particles.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
We study experimentally and numerically a (quasi-)two-dimensional colloidal suspension of self-propelled spherical particles. The particles are carbon-coated Janus particles, which are propelled due to diffusiophoresis in a near-critical water-lutidine mixture. At low densities, we find that the driving stabilizes small clusters. At higher densities, the suspension undergoes a phase separation into large clusters and a dilute gas phase. The same qualitative behavior is observed in simulations of a minimal model for repulsive self-propelled particles lacking any alignment interactions. The observed behavior is rationalized in terms of a dynamical instability due to the self-trapping of self-propelled particles.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Physical Review Letters, 2013 · DOI ↗
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Field: Condensed Matter Physics
Condensed Matter PhysicsPhysics and Astronomy