Maze-solving via diffusiophoresis*

Mazes provide a simple model for many frequently-occurring structures and phenomena (eg. human circulatory system, traffic in a city). It is often of interest to find the most efficient path in a maze (eg. in order to transport materials). The problem of maze-solving poses a mathematical challenge: most analytic solutions can become computationally demanding as mazes become more complex, often relying on brute-force methods that involve exploring multiple paths before arriving at the solution. In this work, we present a novel method of solving the problem by exploiting the diffusiophoretic motion of colloids in a maze.We demonstrate our method experimentally via a microfluidic maze.