Antidurotaxis Droplet Motion onto Gradient Brush Substrates
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Date
2023-09-06
Authors
Kajouri, Russell
Theodorakis, Panagiotis E.
Žídek, Jan
Milchev, Andrey
ORCID
Advisor
Referee
Mark
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Publisher
American Chemical Society
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Abstract
Durotaxis motion is a spectacular phenomenon manifesting itself by the autonomous motion of a nano-object between parts of a substrate with different stiffness. This motion usually takes place along a stiffness gradient from softer to stiffer parts of the substrate. Here, we propose a new design of a polymer brush substrate that demonstrates antidurotaxis droplet motion, that is, droplet motion from stiffer to softer parts of the substrate. By carrying out extensive molecular dynamics simulation of a coarse-grained model, we find that antidurotaxis is solely controlled by the gradient in the grafting density of the brush and is favorable for fluids with a strong attraction to the substrate (low surface energy). The driving force of the antidurotaxial motion is the minimization of the droplet-substrate interfacial energy, which is attributed to the penetration of the droplet into the brush. Thus, we anticipate that the proposed substrate design offers a new understanding and possibilities in the area of autonomous motion of droplets for applications in microfluidics, energy conservation, and biology.
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Langmuir. 2023, vol. 39, issue 43, p. 15285-15296.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c01999
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c01999
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Peer-reviewed
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en