TY - JOUR
T1 - A thermodynamic analysis of end-directed particle flocking in chemical systems
AU - De Bari, B.
AU - Dixon, J.
AU - Pateras, J.
AU - Rusling, J.
AU - Satterwhite-Warden, J.
AU - Vaidya, A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Dr. Bruce Kay and Dr. Dilip Kondepudi for helpful discussions. This work was financially supported by United States National Science Foundation’s INSPIRE Track 1 Program , Grant No. BCS- 1344725 . Author AV also acknowledges United States National Science Foundation Grant 1802641 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - We discuss the thermodynamics behind self-organizing Benzoquinone (BQ) particles on air–water interface. Experiments (Satterwhite-Warden et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2019; Satterwhite-Warden et al., 2019) reveal that BQ particles undergo rapid transient flocking behavior as they move around on the liquid surface. Flocks are seen to vary in size and their formation and stability appears to be dependent upon their shape. It is hypothesized that self organization of particles is a result of surface tension gradients in the two dimensional liquid surface resulting from the slow dissolution of the BQ particles. The current paper uses a mass-action kinetic framework to study the flocking of particles. Two dynamical models, with and without a reservoir, are proposed and analyzed through the thermodynamic lens of free energy, which informs us about dominant and spontaneous ‘reactions’ or flock formations in the system. Results of the model are in good agreement with experiment, revealing that irregular shaped BQ particles do indeed show far greater propensity to form flocks compared with regularly shaped particles and validating the mass-action framework as an appropriate tool to investigate this system.
AB - We discuss the thermodynamics behind self-organizing Benzoquinone (BQ) particles on air–water interface. Experiments (Satterwhite-Warden et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2019; Satterwhite-Warden et al., 2019) reveal that BQ particles undergo rapid transient flocking behavior as they move around on the liquid surface. Flocks are seen to vary in size and their formation and stability appears to be dependent upon their shape. It is hypothesized that self organization of particles is a result of surface tension gradients in the two dimensional liquid surface resulting from the slow dissolution of the BQ particles. The current paper uses a mass-action kinetic framework to study the flocking of particles. Two dynamical models, with and without a reservoir, are proposed and analyzed through the thermodynamic lens of free energy, which informs us about dominant and spontaneous ‘reactions’ or flock formations in the system. Results of the model are in good agreement with experiment, revealing that irregular shaped BQ particles do indeed show far greater propensity to form flocks compared with regularly shaped particles and validating the mass-action framework as an appropriate tool to investigate this system.
KW - End-directedness
KW - Flocking
KW - Free energy
KW - Mass-action
KW - Self-organization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119363720&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cnsns.2021.106107
DO - 10.1016/j.cnsns.2021.106107
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85119363720
SN - 1007-5704
VL - 106
JO - Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation
JF - Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation
M1 - 106107
ER -