Instability and self-propulsion of flexible autophoretic filaments
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866917503779733504 |
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| author | Makanga, Ursy Varma, Akhil Katsamba, Panayiota |
| author_facet | Makanga, Ursy Varma, Akhil Katsamba, Panayiota |
| contents | Over the past decade, autophoretic colloids have emerged as a prototypical system for studying self-propelled motion at microscopic scales, with promising applications in microfluidics, micromachinery, and therapeutics. Their motion in a viscous fluid hinges on their ability to induce surface slip flows that are spatially asymmetric from self-generated solute gradients. Here, we demonstrate theoretically that a straight elastic filament with homogeneous surface chemical properties -- which is otherwise immotile -- can spontaneously achieve self-propulsion by experiencing a buckling instability that serves as the symmetry-breaking mechanism. Using efficient numerical simulations, we characterize the nonlinear dynamics of the elastic filament and show that, over time, it attains distinct swimming modes such as a steadily translating "U" shape and a metastable rotating "S" shape when semiflexible, and an oscillatory state when highly flexible. Our findings provide physical insight into future experiments and the design of reconfigurable synthetic active colloids. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_10153 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Instability and self-propulsion of flexible autophoretic filaments Makanga, Ursy Varma, Akhil Katsamba, Panayiota Soft Condensed Matter Fluid Dynamics Over the past decade, autophoretic colloids have emerged as a prototypical system for studying self-propelled motion at microscopic scales, with promising applications in microfluidics, micromachinery, and therapeutics. Their motion in a viscous fluid hinges on their ability to induce surface slip flows that are spatially asymmetric from self-generated solute gradients. Here, we demonstrate theoretically that a straight elastic filament with homogeneous surface chemical properties -- which is otherwise immotile -- can spontaneously achieve self-propulsion by experiencing a buckling instability that serves as the symmetry-breaking mechanism. Using efficient numerical simulations, we characterize the nonlinear dynamics of the elastic filament and show that, over time, it attains distinct swimming modes such as a steadily translating "U" shape and a metastable rotating "S" shape when semiflexible, and an oscillatory state when highly flexible. Our findings provide physical insight into future experiments and the design of reconfigurable synthetic active colloids. |
| title | Instability and self-propulsion of flexible autophoretic filaments |
| topic | Soft Condensed Matter Fluid Dynamics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.10153 |