Intelligent Systems
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Chemical Nanomotors at the Gram Scale Form a Dense Active Optorheological Medium

2019

Article

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The rheological properties of a colloidal suspension are a function of the concentration of the colloids and their interactions. While suspensions of passive colloids are well studied and have been shown to form crystals, gels, and glasses, examples of energy‐consuming “active” colloidal suspensions are still largely unexplored. Active suspensions of biological matter, such as motile bacteria or dense mixtures of active actin–motor–protein mixtures have, respectively, reveals superfluid‐like and gel‐like states. Attractive inanimate systems for active matter are chemically self‐propelled particles. It has so far been challenging to use these swimming particles at high enough densities to affect the bulk material properties of the suspension. Here, it is shown that light‐triggered asymmetric titanium dioxide that self‐propel, can be obtained in large quantities, and self‐organize to make a gram‐scale active medium. The suspension shows an activity‐dependent tenfold reversible change in its bulk viscosity.

Author(s): Choudhury, Udit and Singh, Dhruv P. and Qiu, Tian and Fischer, Peer
Journal: Adv. Mat.
Volume: 31
Number (issue): 1807382
Year: 2019
Month: February
Day: 10

Department(s): Micro, Nano, and Molecular Systems
Bibtex Type: Article (article)
Paper Type: Journal

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201807382
URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adma.201807382

BibTex

@article{2019Choudhury1,
  title = {Chemical Nanomotors at the Gram Scale Form a Dense Active Optorheological Medium},
  author = {Choudhury, Udit and Singh, Dhruv P. and Qiu, Tian and Fischer, Peer},
  journal = {Adv. Mat.},
  volume = {31},
  number = {1807382},
  month = feb,
  year = {2019},
  doi = {https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201807382},
  url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adma.201807382},
  month_numeric = {2}
}