Interface-mediated spontaneous symmetry breaking and mutual communication between drops containing chemically active particles

Symmetry breaking and the emergence of self-organized patterns is the hallmark of complexity. Here, we demonstrate that a sessile drop, containing titania powder particles with negligible self-propulsion, exhibits a transition to collective motion leading to self-organized flow patterns. This phenom...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2020-05, Vol.11 (1), p.2210-2210, Article 2210
Main Authors: Singh, D. P., Domínguez, A., Choudhury, U., Kottapalli, S. N., Popescu, M. N., Dietrich, S., Fischer, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/638/298/923/614
639/638/298/923/916
Alignment
Broken symmetry
Chemical activity
Chemical communication
Complex systems
Complexity
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Phenomenology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Symmetry
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Summary:Symmetry breaking and the emergence of self-organized patterns is the hallmark of complexity. Here, we demonstrate that a sessile drop, containing titania powder particles with negligible self-propulsion, exhibits a transition to collective motion leading to self-organized flow patterns. This phenomenology emerges through a novel mechanism involving the interplay between the chemical activity of the photocatalytic particles, which induces Marangoni stresses at the liquid–liquid interface, and the geometrical confinement provided by the drop. The response of the interface to the chemical activity of the particles is the source of a significantly amplified hydrodynamic flow within the drop, which moves the particles. Furthermore, in ensembles of such active drops long-ranged ordering of the flow patterns within the drops is observed. We show that the ordering is dictated by a chemical communication between drops, i.e., an alignment of the flow patterns is induced by the gradients of the chemicals emanating from the active particles, rather than by hydrodynamic interactions. Complex systems exhibit unique properties like spontaneous symmetry breaking and self-organization. Singh et al. show that catalytically active, non-propelling particles can induce steady vortical flows within a drop, as well as flow alignment between neighboring drops.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-15713-y