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中国物理学会期刊

柔性棘轮在活性粒子浴内的自发定向转动

Spontaneous rotation of ratchet wheel with soft boundary in active particle bath

CSTR: 32037.14.aps.68.20190425
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  • 活性物质在自然界中广泛存在. 利用二维布朗动力学模拟方法, 设计了一种柔性边界棘轮, 并研究了其在活性粒子浴内的动力学行为. 发现棘轮在活性粒子浴内能够发生定向转动, 这是因为活性粒子在柔性边界周围的不均匀分布导致压力的不均匀分布, 进而对棘轮产生扭矩. 进一步研究了影响转动速率的因素, 发现平均转动角速度随活性粒子驱动力、活性粒子密度的增大而增大, 随粒子旋转扩散系数、支架数的增大而降低. 研究结果对于设计新的实验系统来研究此类非平衡物理现象具有一定的指导意义.

     

    Self-propelling motionisubiquitous in the biological world, ranging from the molecular-level transportation of motor proteins along the microtubules, to the swimming of bacteria on a micrometer scale. An intriguing topic is to design microdevices or micromotors that can rectify the random motion and convert the energy into mechanical work. Here we design a soft microdevice, which may possess the advantages such as damage resistance, durability and adaptability, by utilizing two-dimensional Langevin dynamics simulation. We use a flexible chain to mimic the soft boundary of microdevice. We investigate the dynamical behaviors of microdevice when it is immersed in a thin film of active particle suspension. We find that the microdevicecan rotateunidirectionally and hence output the work. To uncover the physical mechanism of unidirectional rotation, we calculate the pressure distribution along the soft boundary. The spontaneous symmetry breaking of flexible boundary is the origin of the unidirectional rotation, which can lead to the inhomogeneous pressure distribution and hence torque on ratchet. It is because the persistent motion drives the particles to accumulate near the boundary and induce the soft boundary to deform. Further, we focus on the effect of active force and particle density on the angular velocity. With the increase of active force, the average angular velocity increases monotonically due to the increase of torque. With the increase of the number density of active particles, the average angular velocity increases. This is because the aggregation of a large number of particles is beneficial to the increase of ratchet torque. Additionally, we pay attention to the effect of rotational diffusion rate, Dr, of active particles and the number of ratchet wheels. We find the average angular velocity decreases with the increase of rotation diffusion Dr because ofthe ability of particles to weakly accumulate at high Drs. The average angular velocity also decreases with the increase of the number of ratchet wheels. This is because a large number of ratchet wheels weaken the asymmetry of pressure distribution and hence reduce the torque on wheel. Our work provides a new insight into the design of soft microdevices for studying the non-equilibrium system.

     

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