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Brownian motion: Absolute negative particle mobility

Nature, ISSN: 0028-0836, Vol: 436, Issue: 7053, Page: 928-null
2005
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Article Description

Noise effects in technological applications, far from being a nuisance, can be exploited with advantage - for example, unavoidable thermal fluctuations have found application in the transport and sorting of colloidal particles and biomolecules. Here we use a microfluidic system to demonstrate a paradoxical migration mechanism in which particles always move in a direction opposite to the net acting force ('absolute negative mobility') as a result of an interplay between thermal noise, a periodic and symmetric microstructure, and a biased alternating-current electric field. This counterintuitive phenomenon could be used for bioanalytical purposes, for example in the separation and fractionation of colloids, biological molecules and cells.

Bibliographic Details

Ros, Alexandra; Eichhorn, Ralf; Regtmeier, Jan; Duong, Thanh Tu; Reimann, Peter; Anselmetti, Dario

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Multidisciplinary

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