Self-propulsion of bent bimetallic Janus rods. (26th October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Venkateshwar Rao, Dugyala; Reddy, Naveen; Fransaer, Jan; Clasen, Christian
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 52:Number 1(2019)
• Publication Date: 2018-10-26
• Subjects: self-propulsion -- micro-rods -- Janus particle -- bi-metallic -- sideways; Physics -- Periodicals; 530
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/aae6f6
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3727

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper, the sideways self-propulsion behaviour of straight and bent Janus micro-rods is presented. Janus micro-rods are prepared by consecutively sputter-coating platinum and gold on different sides of aligned polystyrene micro-fibers produced via electrospinning. Self-propulsion is induced via the reaction of hydrogen peroxide at the Janus particle interface, and the effect of the particles shape on their self-propulsion trajectories is studied. We show that the self-propulsion trajectories change from straight to circular when the particle shape is changed from a straight to an 'L' shaped rod. In order to understand and quantitatively describe the particle shape effects, we adopted a mathematical model developed by Hagen et al (2011 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter .23 194119) to predict their trajectories. We show that the trajectory of irregularly shaped micro-rods depends only on the particle shape. The predicted trajectories for various particle shapes are in good agreement with the experimental observations.