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Chiral diffusion of rotary nanomotors

Amir Nourhani1,2, Paul E. Lammert2,*, Ali Borhan1, and Vincent H. Crespi2,†

  • 1Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA

  • *pel1@psu.edu
  • †vhc2@psu.edu
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Phys. Rev. E 87, 050301(R) – Published 8 May, 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.050301

Abstract

Neither a purely deterministic rotary nanomotor nor a purely orientational diffuser exhibits long-term translational motion, but coupling rotation to orientational diffusion yields translational diffusion. We demonstrate that this effective translational diffusion can easily dominate the ordinary thermal translational diffusion for experimentally relevant nanomotors, and that this effective diffusion is chiral. Unpowered chiral particles do not exhibit chiral diffusion, but a nanorotor has both handedness and an instantaneous direction of powered motion, thus—unlike an unpowered particle—its diffusional motion can distinguish left from right.

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Information

Phys. Rev. E 87, 050301(R)– Published 8 May, 2013
  • Received 26 June 2012
Article part of CHORUS

©2013 American Physical Society

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