Diffusion of colloidal rods in corrugated channels.

Abstract

In many natural and artificial devices diffusive transport takes place in confined geometries with corrugated boundaries. Such boundaries cause both entropic and hydrodynamic effects, which have been studied only for the case of spherical particles. Here we experimentally investigate the diffusion of particles of elongated shape confined in a corrugated quasi-two-dimensional channel. The elongated shape causes complex excluded-volume interactions between particles and channel walls which reduce the accessible configuration space and lead to novel entropic free-energy effects. The extra rotational degree of freedom also gives rise to a complex diffusivity matrix that depends on both the particle location and its orientation. We further show how to extend the standard Fick-Jacobs theory to incorporate combined hydrodynamic and entropic effects, so as, for instance, to accurately predict experimentally measured mean first passage times along the channel. Our approach can be used as a generic method to describe translational diffusion of anisotropic particles in corrugated channels.