Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 10: Droplets, Wetting, and Microfluidics (joint session DY/CPP)
CPP 10.5: Talk
Monday, March 9, 2026, 16:00–16:15, ZEU/0118
From bipedal to chaotic motion of chemically fueled partially wetting liquid drops — •Florian Voss1 and Uwe Thiele1, 2 — 1Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Münster — 2Center for Data Science and Complexity (CDSC), University of Münster
Chemomechanical coupling is essential to various phenomena in soft matter systems that are kept permanently out of thermodynamic equilibrium, e.g., in reactive complex liquids. Based on a thermodynamically consistent continuum model, we demonstrate that partially wetting liquid drops covered by chemically reacting surfactants display a variety of biomimetic motility modes like shuttling, bipedal, rotational and quasi-random motion when supplied with chemical fuel from an ambient bath. The dynamics originates from chemomechanical feedback between the reaction network on the drop and the Marangoni effect [1] and becomes increasingly complex as a result of competing length scales. Due to the generic underlying thermodynamic structure, we expect that our results are also relevant for other chemically active mixtures and soft matter systems.
[1] F. Voss and U. Thiele, Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 94005 (2025).
Keywords: Chemomechanical Coupling; Reactive Surfactants; Thermodynamic Consistency; Active Wetting; Drop Motility