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Papers by Ania Maciolek
Reviews of Modern Physics, 2018
If colloidal solute particles are suspended in a solvent close to its critical point, they act as... more If colloidal solute particles are suspended in a solvent close to its critical point, they act as cavities in a fluctuating medium and thereby restrict and modify the fluctuation spectrum in a way which depends on their relative configuration. As a result effective, so-called critical Casimir forces (CCFs) emerge between the colloids. The range and the amplitude of CCFs depend sensitively on the temperature and the composition of the solvent as well as on the boundary conditions of the order parameter of the solvent at the particle surfaces. These remarkable, moreover universal features of the CCFs provide the possibility for an active control over the assembly of colloids. This has triggered a recent surge of experimental and theoretical interest in these phenomena. We present an overview of current research activities in this area. Various experiments demonstrate the occurrence of thermally reversible self-assembly or aggregation or even equilibrium phase transitions of colloids i...
Soft Matter, 2020
A gold-capped Janus particle suspended in a near-critical binary liquid mixture can self-propel u... more A gold-capped Janus particle suspended in a near-critical binary liquid mixture can self-propel under illumination. We have immobilized such a particle in a narrow channel and carried out a combined experimental and theoretical study of the non-equilibrium dynamics of a binary solvent around it – lasting from the very moment of switching illumination on until the steady state is reached. In the theoretical study we use both a purely diffusive and a hydrodynamic model{,} which we solve numerically. Our results demonstrate a remarkable complexity of the time evolution of the concentration field around the colloid. This evolution is governed by the combined effects of the temperature gradient and the wettability{,} and crucially depends on whether the colloid is free to move or is trapped. For the trapped colloid{,} all approaches indicate that the early time dynamics is purely diffusive and characterized by composition layers travelling with constant speed from the surface of the coll...
Reviews of Modern Physics, 2018
If colloidal solute particles are suspended in a solvent close to its critical point, they act as... more If colloidal solute particles are suspended in a solvent close to its critical point, they act as cavities in a fluctuating medium and thereby restrict and modify the fluctuation spectrum in a way which depends on their relative configuration. As a result effective, so-called critical Casimir forces (CCFs) emerge between the colloids. The range and the amplitude of CCFs depend sensitively on the temperature and the composition of the solvent as well as on the boundary conditions of the order parameter of the solvent at the particle surfaces. These remarkable, moreover universal features of the CCFs provide the possibility for an active control over the assembly of colloids. This has triggered a recent surge of experimental and theoretical interest in these phenomena. We present an overview of current research activities in this area. Various experiments demonstrate the occurrence of thermally reversible self-assembly or aggregation or even equilibrium phase transitions of colloids i...
Soft Matter, 2020
A gold-capped Janus particle suspended in a near-critical binary liquid mixture can self-propel u... more A gold-capped Janus particle suspended in a near-critical binary liquid mixture can self-propel under illumination. We have immobilized such a particle in a narrow channel and carried out a combined experimental and theoretical study of the non-equilibrium dynamics of a binary solvent around it – lasting from the very moment of switching illumination on until the steady state is reached. In the theoretical study we use both a purely diffusive and a hydrodynamic model{,} which we solve numerically. Our results demonstrate a remarkable complexity of the time evolution of the concentration field around the colloid. This evolution is governed by the combined effects of the temperature gradient and the wettability{,} and crucially depends on whether the colloid is free to move or is trapped. For the trapped colloid{,} all approaches indicate that the early time dynamics is purely diffusive and characterized by composition layers travelling with constant speed from the surface of the coll...