Search for: All records

Inspired by the recent realization of a two-dimensional (2-D) chiral fluid as an active monolayer droplet moving atop a 3-D Stokesian fluid, we formulate mathematically its free-boundary dynamics. The surface droplet is described as a general 2-D linear, incompressible and isotropic fluid, having a viscous shear stress, an active chiral driving stress and a Hall stress allowed by the lack of time-reversal symmetry. The droplet interacts with itself through its driven internal mechanics and by driving flows in the underlying 3-D Stokes phase. We pose the dynamics as the solution to a singular integral–differential equation, over the droplet surface, using the mapping from surface stress to surface velocity for the 3-D Stokes equations. Specializing to the case of axisymmetric droplets, exact representations for the chiral surface flow are given in terms of solutions to a singular integral equation, solved using both analytical and numerical techniques. For a disc-shaped monolayer, we additionally employ a semi-analytical solution that hinges on an orthogonal basis of Bessel functions and allows for efficient computation of the monolayer velocity field, which ranges from a nearly solid-body rotation to a unidirectional edge current, depending on the subphase depth and the Saffman–Delbrück length. Except in the near-wall limit, these solutions have divergent surface shear stresses at droplet boundaries, a signature of systems with codimension-one domains embedded in a 3-D medium. We further investigate the effect of a Hall viscosity, which couples radial and transverse surface velocity components, on the dynamics of a closing cavity. Hall stresses are seen to drive inward radial motion, even in the absence of edge tension. 

We re-examine the model proposed by Alexanderet al.(Phys. Fluids, vol. 18, 2006, 062103) for the closing of a circular hole in a molecularly thin incompressible Langmuir film situated on a Stokesian subfluid. For simplicity their model assumes that the surface phase is inviscid which leads to the result that the cavity area decreases at a constant rate determined by the ratio of edge tension to subfluid viscosity. We reformulate the problem, allowing for a regularising monolayer viscosity. The viscosity-dependent corrections to the hole dynamics are analysed and found to be non-trivial, even when the monolayer viscosity is small; these corrections may explain the departure of experimental data from the theoretical prediction when the hole radius becomes comparable to the Saffman–Delbrück length. Through fitting, under these relaxed assumptions, we find the edge tension could be as much as six times larger ($\sim$4.0 pN) than reported previously.

 

Changes in the geometry and topology of self-assembled membranes underlie diverse processes across cellular biology and engineering. Similar to lipid bilayers, monolayer colloidal membranes have in-plane fluid-like dynamics and out-of-plane bending elasticity. Their open edges and micrometer-length scale provide a tractable system to study the equilibrium energetics and dynamic pathways of membrane assembly and reconfiguration. Here, we find that doping colloidal membranes with short miscible rods transforms disk-shaped membranes into saddle-shaped surfaces with complex edge structures. The saddle-shaped membranes are well approximated by Enneper’s minimal surfaces. Theoretical modeling demonstrates that their formation is driven by increasing the positive Gaussian modulus, which in turn, is controlled by the fraction of short rods. Further coalescence of saddle-shaped surfaces leads to diverse topologically distinct structures, including shapes similar to catenoids, trinoids, four-noids, and higher-order structures. At long timescales, we observe the formation of a system-spanning, sponge-like phase. The unique features of colloidal membranes reveal the topological transformations that accompany coalescence pathways in real time. We enhance the functionality of these membranes by making their shape responsive to external stimuli. Our results demonstrate a pathway toward control of thin elastic sheets’ shape and topology—a pathway driven by the emergent elasticity induced by compositional heterogeneity. 

We use theory and numerical computation to determine the shape of an axisymmetric fluid membrane with a resistance to bending and constant area. The membrane connects two rings in the classic geometry that produces a catenoidal shape in a soap film. In our problem, we find infinitely many branches of solutions for the shape and external force as functions of the separation of the rings, analogous to the infinite family of eigenmodes for the Euler buckling of a slender rod. Special attention is paid to the catenoid, which emerges as the shape of maximal allowable separation when the area is less than a critical area equal to the planar area enclosed by the two rings. A perturbation theory argument directly relates the tension of catenoidal membranes to the stability of catenoidal soap films in this regime. When the membrane area is larger than the critical area, we find additional cylindrical tether solutions to the shape equations at large ring separation, and that arbitrarily large ring separations are possible. These results apply for the case of vanishing Gaussian curvature modulus; when the Gaussian curvature modulus is nonzero and the area is below the critical area, the force and the membrane tension diverge as the ring separation approaches its maximum value. We also examine the stability of our shapes and analytically show that catenoidal membranes have markedly different stability properties than their soap film counterparts.