Tunable dipolar capillary deformations for magnetic Janus particles at fluid–fluid interfaces

Abstract

Janus particles have attracted significant interest as building blocks for complex materials in recent years. Furthermore, capillary interactions have been identified as a promising tool for directed self-assembly of particles at fluid–fluid interfaces. In this paper, we develop theoretical models describing the behaviour of magnetic Janus particles adsorbed at fluid–fluid interfaces interacting with an external magnetic field. Using numerical simulations, we test the models predictions and show that the magnetic Janus particles deform the interface in a dipolar manner. We suggest how to utilise the resulting dipolar capillary interactions to assemble particles at a fluid–fluid interface, and further demonstrate that the strength of these interactions can be tuned by altering the external field strength, opening up the possibility to create novel, reconfigurable materials.