TY - JOUR
T1 - Flow-induced phase separation of active particles is controlled by boundary conditions
AU - Thutupalli, Shashi
AU - Geyer, Delphine
AU - Singh, Rajesh
AU - Adhikari, Ronojoy
AU - Stone, Howard A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/5/22
Y1 - 2018/5/22
N2 - Active particles, including swimming microorganisms, autophoretic colloids, and droplets, are known to self-organize into ordered structures at fluid–solid boundaries. The entrainment of particles in the attractive parts of their spontaneous flows has been postulated as a possible mechanism underlying this phenomenon. Here, combining experiments, theory, and numerical simulations, we demonstrate the validity of this flow-induced ordering mechanism in a suspension of active emulsion droplets. We show that the mechanism can be controlled, with a variety of resultant ordered structures, by simply altering hydrodynamic boundary conditions. Thus, for flow in Hele–Shaw cells, metastable lines or stable traveling bands can be obtained by varying the cell height. Similarly, for flow bounded by a plane, dynamic crystallites are formed. At a no-slip wall, the crystallites are characterized by a continuous out-of-plane flux of particles that circulate and re-enter at the crystallite edges, thereby stabilizing them. At an interface where the tangential stress vanishes, the crystallites are strictly 2D, with no out-of-plane flux. We rationalize these experimental results by calculating, in each case, the slow viscous flow produced by the droplets and the long-ranged, many-body active forces and torques between them. The results of numerical simulations of motion under the action of the active forces and torques are in excellent agreement with experiments. Our work elucidates the mechanism of flow-induced phase separation in active fluids, particularly active colloidal suspensions, and demonstrates its control by boundaries, suggesting routes to geometric and topological phenomena in an active matter.
AB - Active particles, including swimming microorganisms, autophoretic colloids, and droplets, are known to self-organize into ordered structures at fluid–solid boundaries. The entrainment of particles in the attractive parts of their spontaneous flows has been postulated as a possible mechanism underlying this phenomenon. Here, combining experiments, theory, and numerical simulations, we demonstrate the validity of this flow-induced ordering mechanism in a suspension of active emulsion droplets. We show that the mechanism can be controlled, with a variety of resultant ordered structures, by simply altering hydrodynamic boundary conditions. Thus, for flow in Hele–Shaw cells, metastable lines or stable traveling bands can be obtained by varying the cell height. Similarly, for flow bounded by a plane, dynamic crystallites are formed. At a no-slip wall, the crystallites are characterized by a continuous out-of-plane flux of particles that circulate and re-enter at the crystallite edges, thereby stabilizing them. At an interface where the tangential stress vanishes, the crystallites are strictly 2D, with no out-of-plane flux. We rationalize these experimental results by calculating, in each case, the slow viscous flow produced by the droplets and the long-ranged, many-body active forces and torques between them. The results of numerical simulations of motion under the action of the active forces and torques are in excellent agreement with experiments. Our work elucidates the mechanism of flow-induced phase separation in active fluids, particularly active colloidal suspensions, and demonstrates its control by boundaries, suggesting routes to geometric and topological phenomena in an active matter.
KW - Active matter
KW - Boundary effects
KW - Hydrodynamics
KW - Phase separation
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1718807115
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1718807115
M3 - Article
C2 - 29735679
AN - SCOPUS:85047326004
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 115
SP - 5403
EP - 5408
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 21
ER -