Regensburg 2022 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 26: Focus Session: Bioinspired Systems

BP 26.8: Talk

Thursday, September 8, 2022, 17:15–17:30, H15

Energy transfer between coupled colloidal clusters — •Andreas Ehrmann and Carl Goodrich — Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Am Campus 1, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria

Can biology-inspired complexity be obtained without biochemical components? Can we replicate ubiquitous biological processes using only model physical building blocks like DNA-coated colloids that have simple but programmable interactions? The last decades have seen tremendous progress in understanding the self-assembly mechanisms that enable the formation of complex, sub-micron scale structures, but embedding these structures with bio-inspired functional behaviors remains a considerable challenge. Here, we demonstrate a scheme for transferring energy between two colloidal clusters, in analogy to ATP hydrolysis. By coupling the two clusters, we show how the one acting as a receiver catalyzes a structural transition in the one acting as a fuel source, releasing energy that drives the receiver into a higher energy structural state. The coupled system shows a significantly reduced mean-first passage time. This work demonstrates that a fundamental and enabling biological process can be replicated without complex biochemical reactions. In contrast, theories of active matter often focus on the effect of energy consumption, not on the mechanism itself. However, the mechanism is intimately connected to the type of physical phenomena that can result. In a next step, we extend the scheme to convert energy into work by driving a net flux in the receiver, which is not possible in equilibrium and requires a fuel source.