Active colloidal suspensions: Clustering and phase behavior

By Julian Bialk'e, Thomas Speck, Hartmut Lowen. 2014

139 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract We review recent experimental, numerical, and analytical results on active suspensions of self-propelled colloidal beads moving in (quasi-)two dimensions. Active colloids form part of the larger theme of active matter , which is noted for the emergence of collective dynamic phenomena away from thermal equilibrium. Both in experiments and computer simulations, a separation into dense aggregates, i.e., clusters, and a dilute gas phase has been reported even when attractive interactions and an alignment mechanism are absent. Here, we describe three experimental setups, discuss the different propelling mechanisms, and summarize the evidence for phase separation. We then compare experimental observations with numerical studies based on a minimal model of colloidal swimmers. Finally, we review a mean-field approach derived from first principles, which provides a theoretical framework for the density instability causing the phase separation in active colloids.

Subfields: Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Chemistry, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/701fc23cfa15b9ff94799c066553b1aba1950c14

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Condensed Matter Physics

1. M. Cristina Marchetti
2. Charles Reichhardt
3. Hartmut Löwen
4. David Yllanes
5. Adam Patch
6. Silke Henkes
7. R. Di Leonardo
8. Giorgio Volpe

In Materials Chemistry

1. M. Cristina Marchetti
2. Charles Reichhardt
3. Hartmut Löwen
4. R. Di Leonardo
5. David Yllanes
6. Giorgio Volpe
7. Adam Patch
8. Y. Fily

In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

1. M. Cristina Marchetti
2. Hartmut Löwen
3. Charles Reichhardt
4. Y. Fily
5. Giovanni Volpe
6. C. Bechinger

Citations in the corpus

• Active Particles in Complex and Crowded Environments (2016, background): “Interesting reviews on some aspects of the topics covered in this section can be found in Bialké et al. (2015), Cates and Tailleur (2015), and Elgeti et al. (2015).”
• Minimal model of active colloids highlights the role of mechanical interactions in controlling the emergent behavior of active matter (2015, background): “This key property of ABP arises because in this minimal model of active colloids the single-particle angular dynamics is decoupled from interactions and from the angular dynamics of other particles.”