ArticleNature communications2022
Oscillatory rheotaxis of artificial swimmers in microchannels.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Enhanced dispersion of active microswimmers in confined flows.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Interactions Between Active Matters and Endogenous Fields.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Review
- Surface Rolling Active Magnetic Emulsions.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Article
- Frozen by Heating: Temperature Controlled Dynamic States in Droplet Microswimmers.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2025Article
- Microbes in porous environments: from active interactions to emergent feedback.Biophysical reviews · 2024Review
- Active oscillations in microscale navigation.Animal cognition · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Biological microswimmers navigate upstream of an external flow with trajectories ranging from linear to spiralling and oscillatory. Such a rheotactic response primarily stems from the hydrodynamic interactions triggered by the complex shapes of the microswimmers, such as flagellar chirality. We show here that a self-propelling droplet exhibits oscillatory rheotaxis in a microchannel, despite its simple spherical geometry. Such behaviour has been previously unobserved in artificial swimmers. Comparing our experiments to a purely hydrodynamic theory model, we demonstrate that the oscillatory rheotaxis of the droplet is primarily governed by both the shear flow characteristics and the interaction of the finite-sized microswimmer with all four microchannel walls. The dynamics can be controlled by varying the external flow strength, even leading to the rheotactic trapping of the oscillating droplet. Our results provide a realistic understanding of the behaviour of active particles navigating in confined microflows relevant in many biotechnology applications.
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Registered trials
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