Role of Bubble Evolution in the Bubble-Propelled Janus Micromotors

Abstract

Bubble-propelled Janus micromotors have attracted extensive attention in recent years and have been regarded as powerful tools in the environmental and medical fields due to their excellent movement ability. The movement ability can mainly be attributed to the periodic growth, detachment, and/or collapse of the bubble. However, subjected to the experimental conditions, the mechanism of bubble evolution on the motion of the micromotor could not be elucidated clearly. In this work, a finite element method was employed for exploring the role of bubble evolution in bubble-propelled Janus micromotors, which emphasized the growth and collapse of bubbles. After the proposed model was verified by the scallop theorem, the influence of the growth and rapid collapse of bubbles on micromotors was investigated. Results show that the growth and collapse of a bubble can drive the micromotor to produce a displacement, but the displacement caused by a bubble collapse is significantly greater than that caused by bubble growth. The reasons for this phenomenon are analyzed and explained. In addition to the influence of bubble size, the collapse time of the bubble is also investigated.