Characterising the micellar pathway of micro-swimmer dynamics

DOI

Microswimmers are spontaneously moving droplets that can mimic much of the behaviour of simple forms of life, such as swarming, flocking and chemotaxis, in an abiotic system. This project focusses on oil-in-water micro-swimmers, which are self-propelled droplets of liquid crystal. Their motions are powered by the gradual transfer of oil into surfactant micelles, which then swell in size. However, several such transport mechanisms are possible: a direct observation of the size-distribution of micelles would allow discrimination between these mechanisms, and quantification of e.g. their reaction kinetics. Our aim is to achieve such direct measurement with SAXS of a the time-evolution of micelles in a diffusive boundary layer above a well-defined oil-water interface. This would settle the question of why these micro-swimmers actually swim, and allow for exploration of new physics with these systems by the rational design of their properties.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.15151/ESRF-ES-580823920
Metadata Access https://icatplus.esrf.fr/oaipmh/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_datacite&identifier=oai:icatplus.esrf.fr:inv/580823920
Provenance
Creator Michael SZTUCKI ORCID logo; Lucas GOEHRING ORCID logo; Kyle BALDWIN ORCID logo; Corinna MAASS ORCID logo
Publisher ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility)
Publication Year 2024
Rights CC-BY-4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Data from large facility measurement; Collection
Discipline Particles, Nuclei and Fields