Antidurotaxis Droplet Motion onto Gradient Brush Substrates
| Autor: | Kajouri, Russell, Theodorakis, Panagiotis E., Židek, Jan, Milchev, Andrey |
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| Rok vydání: | 2023 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Langmuir 39, 15285 (2023) |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c01999 |
| Popis: | Durotaxis motion is a spectacular phenomenon manifesting itself by the autonomous motion of a nano-object between parts of a substrate with different stiffness. This motion usually takes place along a stiffness gradient from softer to stiffer parts of the substrate. Here, we propose a new design of a polymer brush substrate that demonstrates antidurotaxis droplet motion, that is, droplet motion from stiffer to softer parts of the substrate. By carrying out extensive molecular dynamics simulation of a coarse-grained model, we find that antidurotaxis is solely controlled by the gradient in the grafting density of the brush and is favorable for fluids with a strong attraction to the substrate (low surface energy). The driving force of the antidurotaxial motion is the minimization of the droplet-substrate interfacial energy, which is attributed to the penetration of the droplet into the brush. Thus, we anticipate that the proposed substrate design offers a new understanding and possibilities in the area of autonomous motion of droplets for applications in microfluidics, energy conservation, and biology. Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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