TY - JOUR
T1 - Magnetic control of tubular catalytic microbots for the transport, assembly, and delivery of micro-objects
AU - Solovev, Alexander A.
AU - Sanchez, Samuel
AU - Pumera, Martin
AU - Mei, Yong Feng
AU - Schmidt, Oliver C.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2010/8/9
Y1 - 2010/8/9
N2 - Recently a significant amount of attention has been paid towards the devebpment of man-made synthetic catalytic micro- and nanomolars that can mimic biological counterparts in terms of propulsion power, motion control, and speed. However, only a few applications of such self-propelled vehicles have been described. Here the magnetic control of self-propelled catalytic Ti/Fe/Pt rolled-up microtubes (microbots) that can be used to perform various tasks such as the selective bading, transportation, and delivery of microscale objects in a fluid is shown; for instance, it is demonstrated for polystyrene particles and thin metallic films ("nanoplates"). Microbots self-propel by ejecting microbubbles via a platinum catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water. The fuel and surfactant concentrations are optimized obtaining a maximum speed of 275 μms-1 (5.5 body lengths per second) at 15% of peroxide fuel. The microbots exert a force of around 3.77 pN when transporting a single 5 μm diameter particle; evidencing a high propulsion power that allows for the transport of up to 60 microparticles. By the introduction of an Fe thin film into the rolled-up microtubes, their motion can be fully controlled by an external magnetic field.
AB - Recently a significant amount of attention has been paid towards the devebpment of man-made synthetic catalytic micro- and nanomolars that can mimic biological counterparts in terms of propulsion power, motion control, and speed. However, only a few applications of such self-propelled vehicles have been described. Here the magnetic control of self-propelled catalytic Ti/Fe/Pt rolled-up microtubes (microbots) that can be used to perform various tasks such as the selective bading, transportation, and delivery of microscale objects in a fluid is shown; for instance, it is demonstrated for polystyrene particles and thin metallic films ("nanoplates"). Microbots self-propel by ejecting microbubbles via a platinum catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water. The fuel and surfactant concentrations are optimized obtaining a maximum speed of 275 μms-1 (5.5 body lengths per second) at 15% of peroxide fuel. The microbots exert a force of around 3.77 pN when transporting a single 5 μm diameter particle; evidencing a high propulsion power that allows for the transport of up to 60 microparticles. By the introduction of an Fe thin film into the rolled-up microtubes, their motion can be fully controlled by an external magnetic field.
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U2 - 10.1002/adfm.200902376
DO - 10.1002/adfm.200902376
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77955398986
VL - 20
SP - 2430
EP - 2435
JO - Advanced Functional Materials
JF - Advanced Functional Materials
SN - 1616-301X
IS - 15
ER -