Super-Arrhenius diffusion in a binary colloidalmixture at low volume fraction: An effect ofdepletion interaction.

We report results from the molecular dynamics simulations of a binary colloidal mixture subjected to an external potential barrier along one of the spatial directions at low volume fraction, $\phi=$ 0.2. The variations in the asymmetry of the external potential barrier do not change the dynamics of the smaller particles, showing Arrhenius diffusion. However, the dynamics of the larger particles shows a crossover from sub-Arrhenius to super-Arrhenius diffusion with the asymmetry in the external potential at the low temperatures and low volume fraction. Super-Arrhenius diffusion is generally observed in the high density systems where the transient cages are present due to dense packing, e.g., supercooled liquids, jammed systems, diffusion through porous membranes, dynamics within the cellular environment, etc. This model can be applied to study the molecular transport across cell membranes, nano-, and micro-channels which are characterised by spatially asymmetric potentials.