Dynamics and phase behavior of metallo-dielectric rod-shaped microswimmers driven by alternating current electric field

Abstract

The ability to move and self-organize in response to external stimuli is a fascinating feature of living active matter. Here, the metallo-dielectric rod-shaped microswimmers are shown to have a similar behavior in the presence of an AC electric field. The silica-copper Janus microrods were fabricated using the physical vapor deposition-based glancing angle deposition technique (GLAD). When the aqueous solution of the microrods was under the influence of an external AC electric field, they were found to exhibit different phases such as clustering, swimming, and vertical standing in response to variation of the applied frequency. The swimming behavior (5–90 kHz) of the rods is attributed to the induced-charge electrophoresis (ICEP) phenomenon, whereas the dynamic clustering (<5 kHz) could be explained in terms of the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) interaction. Interestingly, the rods flip to attain the vertically standing position when responding to the applied electric field above 90 kHz. The reorientation and switching of the major axis of the rod along the field direction is attributed to the electro-orientation phenomenon. This is basically due to the dominance of the electric torque above the upper limit of the characteristic frequency, where the strength of slip flows around the microrods is predicted to be poor. The present study not only offers insight into the fundamental aspects of the dynamics and the phase behavior of rod-shaped microswimmers, but also opens an avenue to design reconfigurable active matter systems with features inspired by biological systems.