Modes of synchrony in self-propelled pentanol drops

Abstract

We report various modes of synchrony observed for a population of two, three and four pentanol drops in a rectangular channel at the air–water interface. Initially, the autonomous oscillations of a single 1-pentanol drop were studied in a ferroin DI water solution pre-mixed with some volume of pentanol. A pentanol drop performs continuous motion on the air–water interface due to Marangoni forces. A linear channel was prepared to study the uniaxial movement of the drop(s). Thereafter, a systematic study of the self-propelled motion of a 1-pentanol drop was reported as a function of the drop volume. Subsequently, the coupled dynamics were studied for two, three and four drops, respectively. We observed anti-phase oscillations in a pair of pentanol drops. In the case of three drops, relay synchronization was observed, wherein consecutive pairs of drops were exhibiting out-of-phase oscillations and alternate drops were performing in-phase oscillations. Four pentanol drops showed two different modes of synchrony: one was relay synchrony and the other was out-of-phase oscillations between two pairs of drops (within a pair, the drops exhibit in-phase oscillations).