ACTIVE MATTER

Microswimmers in sessile drying droplets:

Drying droplets on a substrate are ubiquitous in technological and industrial applications, especially in micro- and nano-fabrication and biotechnology. In particular particles, both passive and active, have a fundamental role in most of them. One of the most important aspect is understanding the shape of a pattern left by the particles once the liquid is fully evaporated. For instance, in modern medicine the shape of the pattern left by a drying blood/serum drop is strictly connected to the presence of active bacteria and then to the patient sickness. Unveiling how the bacteria influence the final stain is fundamental to accelerate the diagnosis. However, in fluids such as blood or serum the rheology of the droplet is complex with containing numerous different materials that interact with each other to create very complicated patterns. The scope of my research is to model the complexity of these biological fluids to accurately predict the behavior of sessile drying droplet in presence of both passive and active particles.