  Phototaxis is a light driven self-locomotion of mass and a common phenomenon
in motile organisms with varieties of motility such as in bacteria, algae, etc.
In naturally occurring organisms, mechanical force is generated utilising their
metabolic energy to propel and swim in presence of light, performing important
bio-chemical reactions. Herein, we report a new class of micro-swimmers that
exhibit captivating and complicated micro-swimming mediated colony formation
properties resembling green algae. A facile pyrolysis reaction is explored
leading to homogeneous organic Nano-structures forming patterned
self-assemblies among themselves. A delicate balance of colloid surface forms
interesting architectures such as dynamic colonies, thallus like patterning and
cilia like micro-arms. In presence of weak light both positive and negative
phototaxis are seen moving the micro-swimmers propelling towards and away from
the light respectively. During swimming helical motion and electrostatic
interactions of colloidal micro-swimmers with neighbouring assemblies are
observed. The nature of assembly formation is found to be fractal and can be
disintegrated using strong light. Strong exposure stimulates predominately fast
negative phototaxis leading to directional propulsion along the light path. All
these algae life-like behaviour of the colloidal carbonaceous lyophilic
colloids are stable in alcohol and can be reversibly discontinued with water
due to super-hydrophilicity. We therefore introduce a class of life-like
colloidal chemical architecture. Our discovery may entice studies for creation
of a diverse programmable micro-swimmers for microscopic understanding and
manipulating collective effect of the assemblies for bio-mimetic and catalytic
applications.
