Bubble-Free Propulsion of Ultrasmall Tubular Nanojets Powered by Biocatalytic Reactions

Ma, Xing; Hortelão, Ana C.; Miguel-López, Albert; Sánchez, Samuel

doi:10.1021/jacs.6b06857

Cited by 132 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Urea was also considered as fuel . In a recent example where urease was used as the engine, Patiño et al reported PS particle‐based micromotors with a rough amine‐functionalized SiO 2 shell urease conjugation .…”

Section: Fuel‐driven Nano/micromotorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances in Nano‐ and Micromotors

Fernández-Medina

Ramos-Docampo

Hovorka

et al. 2020

Adv Funct Materials

158

135

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Nano‐ and micromotors are fascinating objects that can navigate in complex fluidic environments. Their active motion can be triggered by external power sources or they can exhibit self‐propulsion using fuel extracted from their surroundings. The research field is rapidly evolving and has produced nano/micromotors of different geometrical designs, exploiting a variety of mechanisms of locomotion, being capable of achieving remarkable speeds in diverse environments ranging from simple aqueous solutions to complex media including cell cultures or animal tissue. This review aims to provide an overview of the recent developments with focus on predominantly experimental demonstrations of the various motor designs developed in the past 24 months. First, externally driven motors are discussed followed by considering fuel‐driven approaches. Finally, a short future perspective is provided.

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Section: Fuel‐driven Nano/micromotorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Advances in Nano‐ and Micromotors

Fernández-Medina

Ramos-Docampo

Hovorka

et al. 2020

Adv Funct Materials

158

135

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…61 Polymeric stomatocyte nanoparticles were loaded with catalase and GOx, consuming glucose to achieve self-propulsion via a cascade of enzymatic reactions. 62 Enzymes were able to power nanorods, 63 nanotubes, 64 and Janus microparticles, 65 which all demonstrated enhanced diffusion as well. These works have demonstrated the feasibility of using biocompatible fuels, for example, urea and glucose, to power micro- and nanomotors.…”

Section: Swimming At the Nanoscalementioning

confidence: 99%

Designing Micro- and Nanoswimmers for Specific Applications

et al. 2016

Self Cite

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ConspectusSelf-propelled colloids have emerged as a new class of active matter over the past decade. These are micrometer sized colloidal objects that transduce free energy from their surroundings and convert it to directed motion. The self-propelled colloids are in many ways, the synthetic analogues of biological self-propelled units such as algae or bacteria. Although they are propelled by very different mechanisms, biological swimmers are typically powered by flagellar motion and synthetic swimmers are driven by local chemical reactions, they share a number of common features with respect to swimming behavior. They exhibit run-and-tumble like behavior, are responsive to environmental stimuli, and can even chemically interact with nearby swimmers. An understanding of self-propelled colloids could help us in understanding the complex behaviors that emerge in populations of natural microswimmers. Self-propelled colloids also offer some advantages over natural microswimmers, since the surface properties, propulsion mechanisms, and particle geometry can all be easily modified to meet specific needs.From a more practical perspective, a number of applications, ranging from environmental remediation to targeted drug delivery, have been envisioned for these systems. These applications rely on the basic functionalities of self-propelled colloids: directional motion, sensing of the local environment, and the ability to respond to external signals. Owing to the vastly different nature of each of these applications, it becomes necessary to optimize the design choices in these colloids. There has been a significant effort to develop a range of synthetic self-propelled colloids to meet the specific conditions required for different processes. Tubular self-propelled colloids, for example, are ideal for decontamination processes, owing to their bubble propulsion mechanism, which enhances mixing in systems, but are incompatible with biological systems due to the toxic propulsion fuel and the generation of oxygen bubbles. Spherical swimmers serve as model systems to understand the fundamental aspects of the propulsion mechanism, collective behavior, response to external stimuli, etc. They are also typically the choice of shape at the nanoscale due to their ease of fabrication. More recently biohybrid swimmers have also been developed which attempt to retain the advantages of synthetic colloids while deriving their propulsion from biological swimmers such as sperm and bacteria, offering the means for biocompatible swimming. In this Account, we will summarize our effort and those of other groups, in the design and development of self-propelled colloids of different structural properties and powered by different propulsion mechanisms. We will also briefly address the applications that have been proposed and, to some extent, demonstrated for these swimmer designs.

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“…Two major types of nanomotors will be reviewed and discussed, namely Janus nanomotors and chiral nanomotors. Other hybrid structures exist, such as tubular nanojets, 93 however these generally have larger feature sizes than 100 nm. The last subsection discusses non-propelling nanomachines that are either actively driven by an external field or thermally driven via biased stochastic processes.…”

Section: Hybrid Inorganic Nanomachinesmentioning

confidence: 99%