Maze Solving by Chemotactic Droplets

Lagzi, István; Soh, Siowling; Wesson, Paul J.; Browne, Kevin P.; Grzybowski, Bartosz A.

doi:10.1021/ja9076793

Cited by 259 publications

(240 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Chemoattractant released at the exit spreads into the maze, with the local concentration depending on the path distance to the exit. By moving up gradients, swimmers will then prefer the shortest path, as shown in chemotactic experimental systems (11,12) and simulations (45).…”

Section: Chemotactic Maze Solvingmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…To demonstrate the chemotactic nature of our droplet swimmers, we used a design inspired by Lagzi et al (11) consisting of two reservoirs connected by a microfluidic maze (Fig. 2).…”

Section: Chemotactic Maze Solvingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Generally, there are two classes of swimmers: systems driven by and aligning with external fields (11)(12)(13)(14), including chemotactic gradients, and selfpropelled swimmers, which move autonomously in homogeneous environments (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21). Many autonomous swimmers additionally react to external fields, e.g., phototactic gradients (22).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Chemotaxis and autochemotaxis of self-propelling droplet swimmers

Jin

Krüger

Maaß

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

239

246

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Chemotaxis and autochemotaxis play an important role in many essential biological processes. We present a self-propelling artificial swimmer system that exhibits chemotaxis as well as negative autochemotaxis. Oil droplets in an aqueous surfactant solution are driven by interfacial Marangoni flows induced by micellar solubilization of the oil phase. We demonstrate that chemotaxis along micellar surfactant gradients can guide these swimmers through a microfluidic maze. Similarly, a depletion of empty micelles in the wake of a droplet swimmer causes negative autochemotaxis and thereby trail avoidance. We studied autochemotaxis quantitatively in a microfluidic device of bifurcating channels: Branch choices of consecutive swimmers are anticorrelated, an effect decaying over time due to trail dispersion. We modeled this process by a simple one-dimensional diffusion process and stochastic Langevin dynamics. Our results are consistent with a linear surfactant gradient force and diffusion constants appropriate for micellar diffusion and provide a measure of autochemotactic feedback strength vs. stochastic forces. This assay is readily adaptable for quantitative studies of both artificial and biological autochemotactic systems.artificial swimmers | chemotaxis | autochemotaxis | microfluidics L ocomotion of living bacteria or cells can be random or oriented. Oriented motion comprises the various "taxis" strategies by which bacteria or cells react to changes in their environment (1). Among these, chemotaxis is one of the best-studied examples (2, 3): Cells and microorganisms are able to sense certain chemicals (chemoattractants or chemorepellents) and move toward or away from them. This is an essential function in many biological processes, e.g., wound healing, fertilization, pathogenic species invading a host, or colonization dynamics (4, 5). When the chemoattractant or chemorepellent is produced by the microorganisms themselves, the system exhibits positive or negative autochemotaxis. Thus, chemotaxis provides a mechanism of interindividual communication. Modeling such communication strategies is key to understanding the collective behavior of microorganisms (6-8) as well as flocks of animals like fire ants (9, 10).To model the swimming motion of microorganisms, various self-propelling artificial swimmer systems have been developed based on different mechanisms. Generally, there are two classes of swimmers: systems driven by and aligning with external fields (11-14), including chemotactic gradients, and selfpropelled swimmers, which move autonomously in homogeneous environments (15-21). Many autonomous swimmers additionally react to external fields, e.g., phototactic gradients (22).Biological autochemotactic systems exhibit very complex behaviors (23,24), where physical effects are intermingling with effects from various bioprocesses such as cell migration, metabolism, and division. To untangle these effects, there have been some design proposals for artificial systems, such as in ref.25, and simulations on the dynamics o...

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Section: Chemotactic Maze Solvingmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…To demonstrate the chemotactic nature of our droplet swimmers, we used a design inspired by Lagzi et al (11) consisting of two reservoirs connected by a microfluidic maze (Fig. 2).…”

Section: Chemotactic Maze Solvingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Chemotaxis and autochemotaxis of self-propelling droplet swimmers

Jin

Krüger

Maaß

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

239

246

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“…Maze-solving droplets are another example that gives the impression of emergence. Lagzi et al [41] made a maze with channels that are 1.4-mm wide and 1-mm tall and filled it with 240 L of KOH aqueous solution. A surfactant was added to reduce the surface tension.…”

Section: Droplet Motion Without Solid Substratementioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomously Moving Colloidal Objects that Resemble Living Matter

Shioi

Ban

Morimune

2010

Entropy

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Abstract:The design of autonomously moving objects that resemble living matter is an excellent research topic that may develop into various applications of functional motion. Autonomous motion can demonstrate numerous significant characteristics such as transduction of chemical potential into work without heat, chemosensitive motion, chemotactic and phototactic motions, and pulse-like motion with periodicities responding to the chemical environment. Sustainable motion can be realized with an open system that exchanges heat and matter across its interface. Hence the autonomously moving object has a colloidal scale with a large specific area. This article reviews several examples of systems with such characteristics that have been studied, focusing on chemical systems containing amphiphilic molecules.

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“…One is to apply an external field as the driving force, 7,8 which is limited by the specific properties of the materials and is strongly dependent on manual control. The other solution is to introduce an external material flow to provide chemical power, such as the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide 4,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] or the reduction of protons by zinc 20,21 for bubble propulsion or other propelling mechanisms, the Marangoni effect caused by a surface tension gradient [22][23][24] or biomotors such as myosins, kinesins and dyneins via the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate. 25 As a branch of material flow research, the Marangoni effect is a facile, environmentally benign and rapidly responsive method for driving small objects automatically.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design of a UV-responsive microactuator on a smart device for light-induced ON-OFF-ON motion

2014

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Combining a stimuli-responsive material and the Marangoni effect, a microactuator containing a ultraviolet (UV)-light-responsive photoresist and surfactant is fabricated. The locomotion of a functionally cooperating device loaded with the microactuator can be initiated by irradiation with 365 nm UV light, ceased by the removal of the UV light and restarted by re-exposure to the UV light. Moreover, the device exhibits good direction control via selective irradiation of photoresponsive microactuators at designated locations. This work is the first example using the chemical Marangoni effect to produce photoresponsive ON-OFF-ON motion of a macroscopic object on water surfaces with little impact on the experimental environment and opens up new opportunities for the design of novel advanced functional materials with controlled properties.

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Maze Solving by Chemotactic Droplets

Cited by 259 publications

References 13 publications

Chemotaxis and autochemotaxis of self-propelling droplet swimmers

Chemotaxis and autochemotaxis of self-propelling droplet swimmers

Autonomously Moving Colloidal Objects that Resemble Living Matter

Design of a UV-responsive microactuator on a smart device for light-induced ON-OFF-ON motion

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