Abstract
The dynamics of colloidal particles at interfaces between two fluids plays a central role in microrheology1, encapsulation2, emulsification3, biofilm formation4, water remediation5 and the interface-driven assembly of materials6. Common intuition corroborated by hydrodynamic theories7,8,9 suggests that such dynamics is governed by a viscous force lower than that observed in the more viscous fluid. Here, we show experimentally that a particle straddling an air/water interface feels a large viscous drag that is unexpectedly larger than that measured in the bulk. We suggest that such a result arises from thermally activated fluctuations of the interface at the solid/air/liquid triple line and their coupling to the particle drag through the fluctuation–dissipation theorem. Our findings should inform approaches for improved control of the kinetically driven assembly of anisotropic particles10 with a large triple-line-length/particle-size ratio, and help to understand the formation and structure of such arrested materials.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge discussions with M. Abkarian and W. Kob and the editing help of J. Palmeri. Financial support from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (Contract No. ANR-07-BLAN-0243-SURFOIDS), from Conseil Scientifique of Université Montpellier 2 (G.B.), and from grant Egide PHC Uthique 25006XL (M.M.) is also acknowledged.
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M.I., C.B. and M.N. conceived the experiments. G.B., D.F., C.B. M.M. and N.B.M. performed the experiments. G.B., M.N., A.S., M.G. and C.B. developed the model. M.N. supervised all parts of the project. G.B. and M.N. wrote the paper with input from M.I., C.B., A.S. and M.G.
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Boniello, G., Blanc, C., Fedorenko, D. et al. Brownian diffusion of a partially wetted colloid. Nature Mater 14, 908–911 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4348
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4348
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