非互惠油滴交換驅動的液滴間捕食者-獵物相互作用
作者:
小柯機器人發布時間:2020/11/18 13:11:00
美國賓州州立大學Lauren D. Zarzar課題組的一項最新研究觀察到非互惠的油交換驅動的液滴之間的捕食者-獵物相互作用。 該項研究成果發表在2020年11月16日出版的《自然-化學》上。
該研究團隊展示了膠束表面活性劑溶液中,不同化學物質的微尺度油滴之間的趨化信號如何產生類似捕食者-獵物間非交互追逐相互作用。這種相互作用和動態自組織是油在不同組分乳狀液滴間整體定向、膠束介導的輸運的結果,由混合的自由能驅動。課題組研究人員系統地闡明了化學設計規則,通過改變油和表面活性劑的化學結構和濃度來調節液滴之間的相互作用。
通過實驗和模擬相結合的方法,小組還研究了多滴簇的活性行為和動態重組。他們的發現展示了如何用可控的、非互惠的化學趨化相互作用來設計化學最小系統,以產生類似於生物體系的突然自組織和集體行為。
據了解,化學趨化相互作用在自然界中是普遍存在,在多體系統中可導致非互惠的、複雜的突現行為。然而,開發化學機械框架的合成和無生命的實施方案,以產生可調強度和方向性的非互惠相互作用是具有挑戰性的。
附:英文原文
Title: Predator–prey interactions between droplets driven by non-reciprocal oil exchange
Author: Caleb H. Meredith, Pepijn G. Moerman, Jan Groenewold, Yu-Jen Chiu, Willem K. Kegel, Alfons van Blaaderen, Lauren D. Zarzar
Issue&Volume: 2020-11-16
Abstract: Chemotactic interactions are ubiquitous in nature and can lead to non-reciprocal and complex emergent behaviour in multibody systems. However, developing synthetic, inanimate embodiments of a chemomechanical framework to generate non-reciprocal interactions of tunable strength and directionality has been challenging. Here we show how chemotactic signalling between microscale oil droplets of different chemistries in micellar surfactant solutions can result in predator–prey-like non-reciprocal chasing interactions. The interactions and dynamic self-organization result from the net directional, micelle-mediated transport of oil between emulsion droplets of differing composition and are powered by the free energy of mixing. We systematically elucidated chemical design rules to tune the interactions between droplets by varying the oil and surfactant chemical structure and concentration. Through the integration of experiment and simulation, we also investigated the active behaviour and dynamic reorganization of multidroplet clusters. Our findings demonstrate how chemically minimal systems can be designed with controllable, non-reciprocal chemotactic interactions to generate emergent self-organization and collective behaviours reminiscent of biological systems.
DOI: 10.1038/s41557-020-00575-0
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-020-00575-0