CO2-Driven diffusiophoresis for maintaining a bacteria-free surface

Suin Shim; Sepideh Khodaparast; Ching-Yao Lai; Jing Yan; Jesse T. Ault; Bhargav Rallabandi; Orest Shardt; Howard A. Stone

doi:10.1039/D0SM02023K

CO₂-Driven diffusiophoresis for maintaining a bacteria-free surface†

Suin Shim,

*^a Sepideh Khodaparast,

^b Ching-Yao Lai,

^c Jing Yan,

^d Jesse T. Ault,

^e Bhargav Rallabandi,

^f Orest Shardt

^g and Howard A. Stone

*^a

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
E-mail: sshim@princeton.edu, hastone@princeton.edu

^b School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

^c Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

^d Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Quantitative Biology Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

^e School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA

^f Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA

^g Bernal Institute and School of Engineering, University of Limerick, Castletroy, Limerick, Ireland

Abstract

Dissolution and dissociation of CO₂ in an aqueous phase induce diffusiophoretic motion of suspended particles with a nonzero surface charge. We report CO₂-driven diffusiophoresis of colloidal particles and bacterial cells in a circular Hele-Shaw geometry. Combining experiments and model calculations, we identify the characteristic length and time scales of CO₂-driven diffusiophoresis in relation to system dimensions and CO₂ diffusivity. The motion of colloidal particles driven by a CO₂ gradient is characterized by measuring the average velocities of particles as a function of distance from the CO₂ sources. In the same geometrical configurations, we demonstrate that the directional migration of wild-type V. cholerae and a mutant lacking flagella, as well as S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, near a dissolving CO₂ source is diffusiophoresis, not chemotaxis. Such a directional response of the cells to CO₂ (or an ion) concentration gradient shows that diffusiophoresis of bacteria is achieved independent of cell shape, motility and the Gram stain (cell surface structure). Long-time experiments suggest potential applications for bacterial diffusiophoresis to cleaning systems or anti-biofouling surfaces, by reducing the population of the cells near CO₂ sources.

Article information

https://doi.org/10.1039/D0SM02023K

Article type

Paper

Submitted

13 Nov 2020

Accepted

18 Jan 2021

First published

29 Jan 2021

Download Citation

Soft Matter, 2021,17, 2568-2576

Permissions

Request permissions

CO₂-Driven diffusiophoresis for maintaining a bacteria-free surface

S. Shim, S. Khodaparast, C. Lai, J. Yan, J. T. Ault, B. Rallabandi, O. Shardt and H. A. Stone, Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 2568 DOI: 10.1039/D0SM02023K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Soft Matter