Eur. Phys. J. E (2012) 35: 77
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2012-12077-x

Regular Article

Motion analysis of light-powered autonomous silver chloride nanomotors

Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, 16802, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

^* e-mail: asen@psu.edu

Received: 21 March 2012
Revised: 7 June 2012
Accepted: 4 July 2012
Published online: 22 August 2012

Abstract

Powered by UV light, nano/micrometer-sized silver chloride particles exhibit autonomous movement and form “schools” in aqueous solution, i.e. regions in which the number density of particles is significantly higher than the global average. In this paper, the silver chloride particles in such a system are classified by their proximity to other AgCl particles —be they isolated, coupled or schooled— and their motion paths are tracked and analyzed. By plotting time-averaged mean squared displacements of each particle over various time intervals from 0.1s to 15.0s, we discover different diffusive behaviors for the three classes of silver chloride particles.