Self-propulsion in 2D Confinement: Phoretic and Hydrodynamic Interactions

TL;DR

This study investigates how confinement between two walls affects the motion and interactions of chemically active Janus particles, revealing new dynamic states and comparing their behavior to biological swimmers and squirmers.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of Janus particle dynamics in weak confinement using the method of reflections, uncovering new oscillatory states and differences based on surface activity.

Findings

Discovered channel-spanning and damped oscillations in confined Janus particles.

Compared Janus particle dynamics with squirmers to distinguish chemical and hydrodynamic effects.

Highlighted how confinement alters particle behavior and sensing mechanisms.

Abstract

Chemically active Janus particles generate tangential concentration gradients along their surface for self-propulsion. Although this is well studied in unbounded domains, the analysis in biologically relevant environments such as confinements is scarce. In this work, we study the motion of a Janus sphere in weak confinement. The particle is placed at an arbitrary location, with an arbitrary orientation between the two walls. Using the method of reflections, we study the effect of confining planar boundaries on the phoretic and hydrodynamic interactions, and their consequence on the Janus particle dynamics. The dynamical trajectories are analyzed using phase diagrams for different surface coverage of activity and solute-particle interactions. In addition to near wall states such as `sliding' and `hovering', we demonstrate that accounting for two planar boundaries reveals two new states: channel-spanning oscillations and damped oscillations around the centerline, which were characterized as `scattering' or `reflection' by earlier analyses on single-wall interactions. Using phase diagrams, we highlight the differences in inert-facing and active-facing Janus particles. We also compare the dynamics of Janus particles with squirmers for contrasting the chemical interactions with hydrodynamic effects. Insights from the current work suggest that biological and artificial swimmers sense their surroundings through long-ranged interactions, that can be modified by altering the surface properties.