Schooling behavior of light-powered autonomous micromotors in water.
A new school of thought: Micrometer-sized silver chloride (AgCl) particles (red) in deionized water move under UV illumination by self-diffusiophoresis (see picture). Each AgCl particle secretes ions to which the other particles respond, and they are observed to "school" into regions with higher concentrations of particles. Photo-inactive silica particles (blue) also respond to the chemical secretion by swimming towards and surrounding individual AgCl particles.
Ibele
Michael
M
Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Mallouk
Thomas E
TE
Sen
Ayusman
A