Oscillating Droplets: Chemical Micro-Oscillators - Towards Autonomous Soft Matter Systems - page 76

dynamics. In combination with the results presented in Chap. 2 , these open up the
possibilities to construct self-organizing dynamic soft matter systems.
Effects such as quorum sensing are widely seen in natural settings and have
recently been reported in artificial chemical oscillators [ 8 ]. However, there is no deep
understanding of such phenomena, particularly due to the difficulty in the resolution
of a single, isolated oscillator where very large populations are present, as are typical
in such phenomena. Such studies have mainly utilised microbial populations, simply
because they are naturally occuring oscillators that are available in sufficient number
to carry out such studies. As we have demonstrated here and also as is well known,
microfluidic technologies can be used to produce monodisperse droplet samples in
great numbers. This can help to study such effects in great detail.
As we discussed in the introduction to this part, active matter, is typically charac-
terised by oscillations and motion of the individual units. As we have discussed in
this chapter, the BZ reaction intermediates react with the surfactant in the oil phase
and also at the droplet interface. We will show in the subsequent chapters, that this
reaction can propel the droplets, creating artificial self propelled droplets.
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