Abstract The Marangoni effect has inspired the development of diverse applications such as robots, gel motors, and self-propelled droplets. A major challenge for the developed gel motors is the need for stators, which dampen the rotating velocity and reduce the motor lifetime due to frictional forces from the stators. Therefore, we developed a new type of gel without a stator to realize rotating motions, namely, a conical frustum gel. In this work, we initially studied the principle of the rotated gels driven by the Marangoni effect. For comparison, we designed two types of gels: cylindrical and conical frustum gels. Then we devised mathematic models to estimate the generated torques. The two gels were synthesized. Additionally, both the oil and aqueous fluids were prepared. Next, we investigated the influence of a chemical on the moving duration of the gels. The circular motion trajectories of the gels were compared and analyzed. Finally, we researched the angular velocities and driving torques generated by the two gels. This work should contribute to the development of a non-stator gel motor powered by the Marangoni effect.

中文翻译：

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用于无定子电机的由 Marangoni 效应驱动的圆锥截头体凝胶

摘要 Marangoni 效应激发了各种应用的发展，如机器人、凝胶马达和自推进液滴。开发的凝胶电机的一个主要挑战是需要定子，由于来自定子的摩擦力，定子会抑制旋转速度并缩短电机寿命。因此，我们开发了一种新型的无定子凝胶来实现旋转运动，即圆锥截头体凝胶。在这项工作中，我们初步研究了由 Marangoni 效应驱动的旋转凝胶的原理。为了进行比较，我们设计了两种类型的凝胶：圆柱和圆锥截头体凝胶。然后我们设计了数学模型来估计产生的扭矩。合成了两种凝胶。另外，制备油和含水流体。下一个，我们研究了化学品对凝胶移动持续时间的影响。凝胶的圆周运动轨迹进行了比较和分析。最后，我们研究了两种凝胶产生的角速度和驱动扭矩。这项工作应该有助于开发由 Marangoni 效应驱动的非定子凝胶电机。