Electro-Orientation and Electro-Rotation of Metallodielectric Janus Particles

Abstract

The electro-rotation (EROT) and electro-orientation (EOR) behavior of metallodielectric (MD) spherical Janus particles (JP) are studied analytically and verified experimentally. This stands in contrast to previous either heuristic or numerically computed models of JP dipoles. First, we obtain frequency-dependent analytic expressions for the corresponding dipole terms for a JP composed of a dielectric and metallic hemispheres, by applying the standard (weak-field) electrokinetic model and using a Fourier-Legendre collocation method for solving two sets of linear equations. EROT and EOR spectra, describing the variation of the JP angular velocity on the forcing frequency of a rotating and non-rotating spatially uniform electric field, respectively, are explicitly determined and compared against experiments (different JP size and solution conductivity). A favorably good qualitative agreement between theory and experimental measurements was found.