Mode Switching and Collective Behavior in Chemical Oil Droplets

We have characterized several dynamic aspects of a simple chemical system capable of self-movement: An oil droplet in water system. We focused on spontaneous mode switching and collective behavior of droplets as emergent properties of the system. Droplets demonstrated spontaneous mode switching by c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Entropy
Main Authors: Takashi Ikegami, Naoto Horibe, Martin M. Hanczyc
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2011-03-01
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/13/3/709/
Description
Summary:We have characterized several dynamic aspects of a simple chemical system capable of self-movement: An oil droplet in water system. We focused on spontaneous mode switching and collective behavior of droplets as emergent properties of the system. Droplets demonstrated spontaneous mode switching by changing speed, direction and acceleration over time, and collective behaviors of droplets resulted from such autonomous characteristics. In this paper, we quantitatively measured those characteristics to show that droplets did not act completely independently in the same system, but tend to be attracted to one another and interact with each other by adjusting their motion.
ISSN:1099-4300