Active microfluidic transport in two-dimensional handlebodies

Abstract

Unlike traditional nematic liquid crystals, which adopt ordered equilibrium configurations compatible with the topological constraints imposed by the boundaries, active nematics are intrinsically disordered because of their self- sustained internal...

Controlling Collective Motion of Kinesin-Driven Microtubules via Patterning of Topographic Landscapes

“…Because this geometric control utilizes the physical principle behind the nematic alignment of gliding microtubules, it would be different from previous demonstrations with isolated single filaments. , The geometric control also has broad biological implications for designing the assembled structure of MTs inspired by plant cell division, such as by placing the bridge pattern to make a compartment wall (Movie S10). As a step toward molecular actuations in nanodevices, our findings can serve as a foundation for the programmable assembly of a broad class of active matter, from cytoskeletons , to nanoparticles with chirality. − …”

Controllable particle migration in liquid crystal flows

“…‡ Email: oliver.henrich@strath.ac.uk particles in cholesteric finger textures 27 or modified free energy landscapes with alternating splay and bend distortions that were introduced through wavy walls 28 . More recently, active nematics were studied in a network of connected annular microfluidic channels 29 .…”

Helical flow states in active nematics

“…Activity can also induce self-organized flow states [13]. In confining channels, an extensile active stress-induced instability to bend perturbations leads to self-sustained spontaneous flows [14][15][16][17][18] and spontaneous circulations [19][20][21] when the characteristic activity length scale act is comparable to the confinement size L, as seen in numerous experimental systems [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Vortex lattices arise when the characteristic length scale matches the confinement, which can be due to an array of obstacles or cavities [30][31][32][33][34][35], bound to spherical surfaces [36], or channel confinement [37][38][39][40].…”