Microscale propulsion and pumping in complex fluids

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The development of biomimetic synthetic swimming microorganisms (micro-swimmers), opens the door to a wide spectrum of potential applications where very small scales are required. These micro-swimmers could be used to perform internal surgery or drug delivery in the human body, used as autonomous roving chemical sensors or even for microscale assembly. An anchored micro-swimmer can act as a microscale pump, mimicking cilia found in nature, a very effective method for transport and mixing at the cellular scale. A difficulty in the design of these synthetic micro-swimmers and micro-pumps is that the physics of fluids at such small scales is fundamentally different than that of everyday observable phenomena and often quite unintuitive. At these scales viscous forces are dominant and inertia is negligible hence familiar methods of locomotion and pumping can be completely ineffective. A particular challenge in the design of these micro-devices for use in industrial or biological applications is that the relevant fluids are often non-Newtonian. Despite the innovative experimental strides being made in fabricating these biomimetic devices, scientific progress must be made to properly characterize their mechanics in complex systems and fluids. Developing this understanding is critical if these devices are to progress from simply a proof-of-concept to industrial and commercial viability, and it is vital for applications in healthcare. It is proposed here to develop a research program on the mechanics of synthetic micro-swimmers and micro-pumps in complex fluids and systems, including scenarios where the fluid may contain microstructure, and where the interaction of many swimmers (collective motion) may be crucial.