Activity induced non-monotonic aggregation in a mixture of chemically active and passive particles

ABSTRACT

Spontaneous symmetry breaking has been shown to be the genesis of self-assembly in a mixture of spherically symmetric chemically active and passive colloids, forming dense clusters. Here, we study the kinetics of such self-assembly, driven by the phoretic motion of passive colloids following the chemical gradient generated by the active seeds. A non-monotonic effect of activity on aggregation is the key observation in this work. We rationalize such non-monotonicity in the clustering by the hybrid coarse-grained simulations. The average cluster population and the variation of their size as a function of time, the stability of clusters, and their dynamics are the key quantifications that help us comprehend the aggregation.

KEYWORDS:

• Active matter
• colloids
• self-assembly
• chemically active motor
• chemotaxis
• diffusiophoresis

Acknowledgments

The computation work was carried out at the HPC facility in IISER Bhopal. M.J. acknowledges CSIR-UGC for funding.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board [CRG/2022/003778].