Powered by UV light, micrometer-sized silver chloride (AgCl) motors do autonomousmovement and form �schools� in aqueous solution, as our group previously reported.We track and then analyze motion of three groups of AgCl particles: particles that are in the formed �schools� with more than four particles around (within a radius of three particle body sizes), coupled particles that are outside the school yet have one to three particles around, and isolated particles. By plotting time-averaged mean squared displacement (MSD) of each particle over different time intervals , we discover different diffusion behaviors for the three groups of AgCl particles: schooled particles show subdiffusive behavior due to the confinement in the school, coupled particles mainly show normal diffusion behavior, and isolated particles show superdiffusive behavior by a combination of powered diffusion and brownian rotation. These results reveal correlation between movements of motor particles with their neighboring ones, and leads to a better understanding of the hydrodynamics properties of the synthetic motors.

Motion analysis of light-powered autonomous silver chloride synthetic motors

242nd National Meeting (2011)

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