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Royal Society of Chemistry, Soft Matter, 1(12), p. 131-140

DOI: 10.1039/c5sm01831e

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Swimming in a Crystal:

Journal article published in 2014 by Aidan Thomas Brown ORCID, Ioana D. Vladescu, Angela Dawson, Teun Vissers, Jana Schwarz-Linek, Juho S. Lintuvuori ORCID, Wilson C. K. Poon ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

We study catalytic Janus particles and Escherichia coli bacteria swimming in a two-dimensional colloidal crystal. The Janus particles orbit individual colloids and hop between colloids stochastically, with a hopping rate that varies inversely with fuel (hydrogen peroxide) concentration. At high fuel concentration, these orbits are stable for 100s of revolutions, and the orbital speed oscillates periodically as a result of hydrodynamic, and possibly also phoretic, interactions between the swimmer and the six neighbouring colloids. Motile E. coli bacteria behave very differently in the same colloidal crystal: their circular orbits on plain glass are rectified into long, straight runs, because the bacteria are unable to turn corners inside the crystal.