Dynamics of individual Brownian rods in a microchannel flow

We study the orientational dynamics of heavy silica microrods flowing through a microfluidic channel. Comparing experiments and Brownian dynamics simulations we identify different particle orbits, in particular in-plane tumbling behavior, which cannot be explained by classical Jeffery theory, and we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2019-05
Main Authors: Zöttl, Andreas, Klop, Kira E, Balin, Andrew K, Gao, Yongxiang, Yeomans, Julia M, Dirk G A L Aarts
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Microchannels
Microfluidics
Orbits
Rods
Silicon dioxide
Tumbling
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We study the orientational dynamics of heavy silica microrods flowing through a microfluidic channel. Comparing experiments and Brownian dynamics simulations we identify different particle orbits, in particular in-plane tumbling behavior, which cannot be explained by classical Jeffery theory, and we relate this behavior to the rotational diffusion of the rods. By constructing the full, three-dimensional, orientation distribution, we describe the rod trajectories and quantify the persistence of Jeffery orbits using temporal correlation functions of the Jeffery constant. We find that our colloidal rods lose memory of their initial configuration in about a second, corresponding to half a Jeffery period.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1905.05020