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Tuning Shear Rheology through Active Dopants (2506.05262v1)
Published 5 Jun 2025 in cond-mat.soft and cond-mat.stat-mech
Abstract: We numerically investigate the shear rheology of mixtures of active and passive Brownian particles, with varying fractions of active components. We find that even a small fraction of active dopants triggers fluidization with comparable efficiency to fully active systems. A combined parameter, active energy, given by dopant fraction multiplied by propulsion speed squared controls the shear rheology and glass transition of the active-passive mixtures. These results together provide a quantitative strategy for fine-tuning the mechanical properties of a soft material with small amounts of active dopants.