Mechanisms of transport enhancement for self-propelled nanoswimmers in a porous matrix
Abstract
Micro/nanoswimmers convert diverse energy sources into directional movement, demonstrating significant promise for biomedical and environmental applications, many of which involve complex, tortuous, or crowded environments. Here, we investigated the transport behavior of self-propelled catalytic Janus particles in a complex interconnected porous void space, where the rate-determining step involves the escape from a cavity and translocation through holes to adjacent cavities. Surprisingly, self-propelled nanoswimmers escaped from cavities more than 20× faster than passive (Brownian) particles, despite the fact that the mobility of nanoswimmers was less than 2× greater than that of passive particles in unconfined bulk liquid. Combining experimental measurements, Monte Carlo simulations, and theoretical calculations, we found that the escape of nanoswimmers was enhanced by nuanced secondary effects of self-propulsion which were amplified in confined environments. In particular, active escape was facilitated by anomalously rapid confined short-time mobility, highly efficient surface-mediated searching for holes, and the effective abolition of entropic and/or electrostatic barriers at the exit hole regions by propulsion forces. The latter mechanism converted the escape process from barrier-limited to search-limited. These findings provide general and important insights into micro/nanoswimmer mobility in complex environments.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[1]
- Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1798952
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1850761
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0001854.; SC0001854
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 118 Journal Issue: 27; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424
- Publisher:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; 77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; Science & Technology - Other Topics; nanoswimmers; three-dimensional tracking; porous materials; self-propulsion; cavity escape
Citation Formats
Wu, Haichao, Greydanus, Benjamin, and Schwartz, Daniel K. Mechanisms of transport enhancement for self-propelled nanoswimmers in a porous matrix. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1073/pnas.2101807118.
Wu, Haichao, Greydanus, Benjamin, & Schwartz, Daniel K. Mechanisms of transport enhancement for self-propelled nanoswimmers in a porous matrix. United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101807118
Wu, Haichao, Greydanus, Benjamin, and Schwartz, Daniel K. Mon .
"Mechanisms of transport enhancement for self-propelled nanoswimmers in a porous matrix". United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101807118.
@article{osti_1798952,
title = {Mechanisms of transport enhancement for self-propelled nanoswimmers in a porous matrix},
author = {Wu, Haichao and Greydanus, Benjamin and Schwartz, Daniel K.},
abstractNote = {Micro/nanoswimmers convert diverse energy sources into directional movement, demonstrating significant promise for biomedical and environmental applications, many of which involve complex, tortuous, or crowded environments. Here, we investigated the transport behavior of self-propelled catalytic Janus particles in a complex interconnected porous void space, where the rate-determining step involves the escape from a cavity and translocation through holes to adjacent cavities. Surprisingly, self-propelled nanoswimmers escaped from cavities more than 20× faster than passive (Brownian) particles, despite the fact that the mobility of nanoswimmers was less than 2× greater than that of passive particles in unconfined bulk liquid. Combining experimental measurements, Monte Carlo simulations, and theoretical calculations, we found that the escape of nanoswimmers was enhanced by nuanced secondary effects of self-propulsion which were amplified in confined environments. In particular, active escape was facilitated by anomalously rapid confined short-time mobility, highly efficient surface-mediated searching for holes, and the effective abolition of entropic and/or electrostatic barriers at the exit hole regions by propulsion forces. The latter mechanism converted the escape process from barrier-limited to search-limited. These findings provide general and important insights into micro/nanoswimmer mobility in complex environments.},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2101807118},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
number = 27,
volume = 118,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jun 28 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Mon Jun 28 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
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