Surface Excess Energy as a Unifying Thermodynamic Framework for Active Diffusion

Directed motion of particles is typically explained by phoretic mechanisms arising under externally imposed chemical, electric, or thermal gradients. In contrast, chemical reactions can enhance particle diffusion even in the absence of such external gradients. We refer to this increase as active diffusivity, often attributed to self-diffusiophoresis or self-electrophoresis, although these mechanisms alone do not fully account for experimental observations. Here, we investigate active diffusivity in catalytic Janus particles immersed in reactive media without imposed gradients. We show that interfacial reactions generate excess surface energy and sustained interfacial stresses that supplement thermal energy, enabling diffusion beyond the classical thermal limit. We consistently quantify this contribution using both dissipative and nondissipative approaches, assuming that the aqueous bath remains near equilibrium. Our framework reproduces experimentally observed trends in diffusivity versus activity, including the nonmonotonic behaviors reported in some systems, and agrees with data for nanometric Janus particles catalyzing charged substrates as well as vesicles with membrane-embedded enzymes driven by ATP hydrolysis. These results demonstrate that chemical reactions can induce and sustain surface-tension gradients and surface excess energy, providing design principles for tuning mobility in synthetic active matter.