title: Catalytic microrotor driven by geometrical asymmetry.
abstract: An asymmetric gear with homogeneous surface properties is, here, presented as a prototype to fabricate catalytic microrotors. The driving torque arises from the diffusiophoretic effect induced by the concentration gradients generated by catalytic chemical reactions at the gear surface. This torque produces a spontaneous and unidirectional rotation of the asymmetric gear. By means of mesoscopic simulations, we prove and characterize this scenario. The gear rotational velocity is determined by the gear-solvent interactions, the gear geometry, the solvent viscosity, and the catalytic reaction ratio. Our work presents a simple way to design self-propelled microrotors, alternative to existing catalytic bi-component, or thermophoretic ones.
authors: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors: Mingcheng
authors: M
authors: Yang
authors: Theoretical Soft-Matter and Biophysics, Institute of Complex Systems, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
authors: Marisol
authors: M
authors: Ripoll
authors: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors: Ke
authors: K
authors: Chen
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D004058:Diffusion; D055616:Microtechnology / Q000379:methods*; D012399:Rotation; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D012997:Solvents