SKM 2023 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 38: Microswimmers and Fluid Physics of Life (joint session DY/CPP)

CPP 38.8: Talk

Wednesday, March 29, 2023, 17:00–17:15, MOL 213

Self-assembling meso-machines along liquid-air interfaces — •Nicolas Vandewalle, Megan Delens, and Ylona Collard — GRASP, University of Liege, B4000 Liege, Belgium

Magnetocapillary driven self-assembly allows us to create complex structures floating along a liquid-air interface. We show how these structures can be elaborated and how they can be triggered for locomotion. First, the pairwise capillary and magnetic interactions between floating objects are experimentally studied and rationalized through analogies with electrostatics. Then, the combination of capillary attraction and magnetic repulsion will lead to the spontaneous formation of a rich variety of floating structures. Placed in processing magnetic fields, those structures may behave like swimming ciliate organisms and start to move along the liquid-air interface. The conditions to obtain this magnetic powered locomotion are emphasized.