We report a novel versatile droplet system where droplets of organic solvent, 3-phenylpropionaldehyde (3PPA), spontaneously propel themselves both on the surface of surfactant solution, that is, at the air-solution interface, and on the bottom surface of the Petri dish, that is, at the glass-solution interface. Moreover, we found that 3PPA can be polymerized with the help of basic catalysts, resulting in a compound with enhanced surface activity. This polymerized compound then alters the mode of droplets’ self-propulsion. We propose that this 3PPA droplets system can be used as a primitive cell model for its ability of propulsion and chemical reaction both induced by its environment.

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General Conference: Accepted oral presentations
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© 2024 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license
2024
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Issue Section:
General Conference: Accepted oral presentations