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. 2017 Sep 27;13(37):6450-6457.
doi: 10.1039/c7sm01117b.

Spontaneous emulsification and self-propulsion of oil droplets induced by the synthesis of amino acid-based surfactants

Affiliations

Spontaneous emulsification and self-propulsion of oil droplets induced by the synthesis of amino acid-based surfactants

Yuriko Nagasaka et al. Soft Matter. .

Abstract

It is well known that oil droplets in or on water exhibit spontaneous movement induced by surfactants, and this self-propulsion is regarded as an important factor in droplet-based models for a living cell. We report here an oil-droplet system spontaneously producing amino acid-based surfactants, which are then utilized for the droplets' self-propulsion. Thus this system is an active system capable of producing the fuel for the propulsion by itself, which can be used as a conceptual model for cell metabolism.

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