Jeffrey L. Moran

Locomotion of electrocatalytic nanomotors due to reaction induced charge autoelectrophoresis

Bimetallic rod-shaped nanomotors swim autonomously in hydrogen peroxide solutions. Here, we present a scaling analysis, computational simulations, and experimental data that show that the nanomotor locomotion is driven by fluid slip around the nanomotor surface due to electrical body forces. The body forces are generated by a coupling of charge density and electric fields induced by electrochemical reactions occurring on the nanomotor surface. We describe the dependence of nanomotor motion on the nanomotor surface potential and reaction-driven flux.

Role of solution conductivity in reaction induced charge auto-electrophoresis

Catalytic bimetallic Janus particles swim by a bipolar electrochemical propulsion mechanism that results from electroosmotic fluid slip around the particle surface. The flow is driven by electrical body forces which are generated from a coupling of a reaction-induced electric field and net charge in the diffuse layer surrounding the particle. This paper presents simulations, scaling, and physical descriptions of the experimentally observed trend that the swimming speed decays rapidly with increasing solution conductivity. The simulations solve the full Poisson-Nernst-Planck-Stokes equations with multiple ionic species, a cylindrical particle in an infinite fluid, and nonlinear Butler-Volmer boundary conditions to represent the electrochemical surface reactions. The speed of bimetallic particles is reduced in high-conductivity solutions because of reductions in the induced electric field in the diffuse layer near the rod, the total reaction rate, and the magnitude of the rod zeta potential. This work suggests that the auto-electrophoretic mechanism is inherently susceptible to speed reductions in higher ionic strength solutions.

Submicron Scale Patterning in Sintered Silica Colloidal Crystal Films Using a Focused Ion Beam

Focused ion beam milling is used to fabricate micron and submicron scale patterns in sintered silica colloidal crystal films. Rectangular cavities with both solid and porous boundaries, fluidic channels, and isolation of a small number of packed spheres are patterned. The ion beam can pattern sintered films of individual submicron size spheres and create patterns that cover up to 40 mum in less than 15 min. The experiments in this work indicate that the amount of redeposited material on the surface of a milled cavity determines whether the surface will be porous or solid. FIB direct patterning has applications in colloidal crystal based lithography, integrated photonic devices, optofluidic devices, and micrototal-analytical systems.

Nonlinear electrophoresis of ideally polarizable particles

We focus in this paper on the nonlinear electrophoresis of ideally polarizable particles. At high applied voltages, significant ionic exchange occurs between the electric double layer, which surrounds the particle, and the bulk solution. In addition, steric effects due to the finite size of ions drastically modify the electric potential distribution in the electric double layer. In this situation, the velocity field, the electric potential, and the ionic concentration in the immediate vicinity of the particle are described by a complicated set of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations. In the general case, these equations must be solved numerically. In this study, we rely on a numerical approach to determine the electric potential, the ionic concentration, and the velocity field in the bulk solution surrounding the particle. The numerical simulations rely on a pseudo-spectral method which was used successfully by Chu and Bazant [J. Colloid Interface Sci.315(1), 319–329 (2007)] to determine the electric potential and the ionic concentration around an ideally polarizable metallic sphere. Our numerical simulations also incorporate the steric model developed by Kilic et al. [Phys. Rev. E75, 021502 (2007)] to account for crowding effects in the electric double layer, advective transport, and for the presence of a body force in the bulk electrolyte. The simulations demonstrate that surface conduction significantly decreases the electrophoretic mobility of polarizable particles at high zeta potential and at high applied electric field. Advective transport in the electric double layer and in the bulk solution is also shown to significantly impact surface conduction.

Numerical study of the effect of soft layer properties on bacterial electroporation

We present a numerical model of electroporation in a gram-positive bacterium, which accounts for the presence of a negatively charged soft polyelectrolyte layer (which may include a periplasmic space, peptidoglycan layer, cilia, flagella, and other surface appendages) surrounding its plasma membrane. We model the ion transport within and outside the soft layer using the soft layer electrokinetics-based Poisson-Nernst-Planck formalism. Additionally, we model the electroporation dynamics on the plasma membrane using the pore nucleation-based electroporation formalism developed by Krassowska and Filev. We find that ion transport within the soft layer (surface conduction), which depends on the relative importance of the soft layer charged group concentration compared to the buffer concentration, significantly alters the transmembrane voltage across the plasma membrane and hence the pore characteristics. Our numerical simulations suggest that surface conduction significantly lowers the pore number in the plasma membrane. This observation is consistent with experimental studies that show that gram-positive bacteria, in general, have lower transformation efficiencies compared to gram-negative bacteria. Our studies highlight a strong dependence of bacterial electroporation on cell envelope properties and buffer conditions, which need to be taken into consideration when designing electroporation protocols.