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arXiv · 1605.03773

Unravelling the role of phoretic and hydrodynamic interactions in active colloidal suspensions

Andrea Scagliarini·Ignacio Pagonabarraga
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Abstract

Active fluids comprise a variety of systems composed of elements immersed in a fluid environment which can convert some form of energy into directed motion; as such they are intrinsically out-of-equilibrium in the absence of any external forcing. A fundamental problem in the physics of active matter concerns the understanding of how the characteristics of the autonomous propulsion and agent-agent interactions determine the collective dynamics of the system. We study numerically suspensions of self-propelled diffusiophoretic colloids, in (quasi)-2d configurations, accounting for both dynamically resolved solute-mediated phoretic interactions and solvent-mediated hydrodynamic interactions. Our results show that the system displays different scenarios at changing the colloid-solute affinity and it develops a cluster phase in the chemoattractive case. We study the statistics of cluster sizes and cluster morphologies for different magnitudes of colloidal activity. Finally, we provide evidences that hydrodynamics plays a relevant role in the aggregation kinetics and cluster morphology, significantly hindering the cluster growth.

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Andrea Scagliarini, Ignacio Pagonabarraga. 2016-05-12. Unravelling the role of phoretic and hydrodynamic interactions in active colloidal suspensions. https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.03773

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