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Autores principales: Melio, Julio, van Hecke, Martin, Henkes, Silke E., Kraft, Daniela J.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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Acceso en línea:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.17196
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author Melio, Julio
van Hecke, Martin
Henkes, Silke E.
Kraft, Daniela J.
author_facet Melio, Julio
van Hecke, Martin
Henkes, Silke E.
Kraft, Daniela J.
contents Biological machines harness targeted deformations that can be actuated by Brownian fluctuations. However, while synthetic micromachines can similarly leverage targeted deformations they are too stiff to be driven by thermal fluctuations and thus require strong forcing. Furthermore, systems that are able to change their conformation by thermal fluctuations do so uncontrollably or require external control. Here we leverage DNA-based sliding contacts to create colloidal pivots, rigid anisotropic objects that freely fluctuate around their pivot point, and use a hierarchical strategy to assemble these into Brownian metamaterials and machines with targeted deformation modes. We realize the archetypical rotating diamond and rotating triangle, or Kagome, geometries, and quantitatively show how thermal fluctuations drive their predicted auxetic deformations. Finally, we implement magnetic particles into the colloidal pivots to achieve an elementary Brownian machine with easily actuatable deformations that can harness Brownian fluctuations. Together, our work introduces a strategy for creating thermal mechanical metamaterials and leverages them for functional Brownian devices, paving the way to materialize flexible, actuatable structures for micro-robots, smart materials, and nano-medicine.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_17196
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Colloidal Pivots Enable Brownian Metamaterials and Machines
Melio, Julio
van Hecke, Martin
Henkes, Silke E.
Kraft, Daniela J.
Soft Condensed Matter
Biological machines harness targeted deformations that can be actuated by Brownian fluctuations. However, while synthetic micromachines can similarly leverage targeted deformations they are too stiff to be driven by thermal fluctuations and thus require strong forcing. Furthermore, systems that are able to change their conformation by thermal fluctuations do so uncontrollably or require external control. Here we leverage DNA-based sliding contacts to create colloidal pivots, rigid anisotropic objects that freely fluctuate around their pivot point, and use a hierarchical strategy to assemble these into Brownian metamaterials and machines with targeted deformation modes. We realize the archetypical rotating diamond and rotating triangle, or Kagome, geometries, and quantitatively show how thermal fluctuations drive their predicted auxetic deformations. Finally, we implement magnetic particles into the colloidal pivots to achieve an elementary Brownian machine with easily actuatable deformations that can harness Brownian fluctuations. Together, our work introduces a strategy for creating thermal mechanical metamaterials and leverages them for functional Brownian devices, paving the way to materialize flexible, actuatable structures for micro-robots, smart materials, and nano-medicine.
title Colloidal Pivots Enable Brownian Metamaterials and Machines
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.17196