posted on 2021-10-08, 17:37authored bySergey Abakumov, Olivier Deschaume, Carmen Bartic, Christian Lang, Olivera Korculanin, Jan Karel George Dhont, Minne Paul Lettinga
Video
microscopy of fluorescently labeled semiflexible, slender,
monodisperse colloidal rods in a host dispersion of unlabeled rods
reveals a complex skating-type motion. Trajectories of single rods
consist of a zig–zag sequence of paths where rods move within
a tube set up by the surrounding rods. We show that head-on collisions
within the tube affect the dynamics in a fundamental way, leading
to a unique anomalous splitting of the distribution of particle displacements.
Based on this log jamming process and relatively weak tube confinement,
we propose an improved coupling relation between the parallel and
perpendicular motion of individual rods within a tube.