Self-Starting Micromotors in a Bacterial Bath
Abstract
Micromotors pushed by biological entities, such as motile bacteria, constitute a fascinating way to convert chemical energy into mechanical work at the micrometer scale. Here we show, by using numerical simulations, that a properly designed asymmetric object can be spontaneously set into the desired motion when immersed in a chaotic bacterial bath. Our findings open the way to conceive new hybrid microdevices exploiting the mechanical power production of bacterial organisms. Moreover, the system provides an example of how, in contrast with equilibrium thermal baths, the irreversible chaotic motion of active particles can be rectified by asymmetric environments.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- January 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.048104
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0812.2375
- Bibcode:
- 2009PhRvL.102d8104A
- Keywords:
-
- 87.17.Jj;
- 05.70.Ln;
- 87.85.G-;
- Cell locomotion;
- chemotaxis and related directed motion;
- Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics;
- Biomechanics;
- Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter;
- Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics;
- Physics - Biological Physics
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 3 figures