Tunable dipolar capillary deformations for magnetic Janus particles at fluid-fluid interfaces.

Abstract

Janus particles have attracted significant interest as building blocks for complex materials in recent years. Furthermore, capillary interactions have been identified as a promising tool for directed self-assembly of particles at fluid-fluid interfaces. In this paper, we develop theoretical models describing the behaviour of magnetic Janus particles adsorbed at fluid-fluid interfaces interacting with an external magnetic field. Using numerical simulations, we test the models predictions and show that the magnetic Janus particles deform the interface in a dipolar manner. We suggest how to utilise the resulting dipolar capillary interactions to assemble particles at a fluid-fluid interface, and further demonstrate that the strength of these interactions can be tuned by altering the external field strength, opening up the possibility to create novel, reconfigurable materials.