Spontaneous symmetry breaking induced unidirectional rotation of chain-grafted colloid in the active bath

Abstract

Exploiting the energy of randomly moving active agents such as bacteria is a fascinating way to power a microdevice. Here we show, by simulations, that a chain-grafted disk-like colloid can rotate unidirectionally when immersed in a thin film of active particle suspension. The spontaneous symmetry breaking of chain configurations is the origin of the unidirectional rotation. Long persistence time, large propelling force and/or small rotating friction are keys to keeping the broken symmetry and realizing the rotation. In the rotating state, we find very simple linear relations, e.g. between mean angular speed and propelling force. The time-evolving asymmetry of chain configurations reveals that there are two types of non-rotating state. Our findings provide new insights into the phenomena of spontaneous symmetry breaking in active systems with flexible objects and also open the way to conceive new soft/deformable microdevices.