During the second day of the experimental training, we organised the first round table discussion. The session was chaired by six of the students attending the training: Carolina van Baalen, Danne van Roon, Gülce Bayram, Harshith Bachimanchi, Laura Natali and Sandrine Heijnen.
The topic of the round table was phoretic propulsion mechanisms and we had four panelists – Juliane Simmchen, Frank Cichos, Ivo Buttinoni and Felix Ginot – and a guest speaker, Antoni Homs Corbera. After a brief introduction of the panelists, we had a chance to ask all the questions we collected from the other participants.
The discussion started with the definition of the term “phoresis” and continued with the simulation frameworks for phoretic colloids. It included a brief discussion of the complexity involved in these processes and the typical length scales at which interfacial effects are relevant.
The conclusion was “a common joke at conferences is that the phoresis starts when coffee is about to be served”. The real conclusion was that phoretic interaction needs very large gradients on the macroscopic scale and is hidden by diffusion on a very small scale.
All participants had the possibility to jump in and add upcoming questions. We ended the round table by discussing the possible applications of phoretic colloids, highlighting the environmental aspects like microplastics’ filtration in water.
We thank all the guests and participants for making it a successful discussion moment.
