Autonomous movement of chemically powered vesicle

TL;DR

This paper proposes a self-propelling mechanism for deformable vesicles driven by chemical gradients, with simulations demonstrating their velocity, reorientation, and shape changes, advancing understanding of chemically powered microscale motility.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model for vesicle self-propulsion based on asymmetric chemical reactions and provides simulation data on their dynamics and shape transformations.

Findings

Vesicle velocity depends on chemical gradient asymmetry

Reorientation behavior is influenced by environmental fluctuations

Shape transformations occur during propulsion

Abstract

A mechanism for self propulsion of deformable vesicle has been proposed, vesicle moves by sensing the self-generated chemical gradient. Like many molecular motors they suffer strong perturbations from the environment in which they move as a result of thermal fluctuations and do not rely on inertia for their propulsion. Motion of the vesicle is driven by an asymmetric distribution of reaction products. The propulsive velocity of the device is calculated as well as the scale of the velocity fluctuations. We present the simulation results on velocity of vesicle, reorientation of vesicle, and shape transformation of vesicles.