Journal article
Fabrication and control of simple low Reynolds number microswimmers
Applied physics letters, v 109(3), p34101
18 Jul 2016
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
The development of miniaturized robotic swimmers is hindered by technical limitations in micro- and nanofabrication. To circumvent these limitations, we investigated the minimal geometrical requirements for swimming in low Reynolds number. Micro-and nanofabrication of complex shapes, such as helices, on a massive scale requires sophisticated state of the art technologies and has size limitations. In contrast, simple shaped structures, such as spherical particles, can be fabricated massively using chemical synthesis with relative ease. Here, simple microswimmers were fabricated using two microparticles with debris attached to their surface. The debris on the microswimmer's surface creates a geometry with two or more planes of symmetry, allowing the microswimmer to swim in bulk fluid at low Reynolds number. The microswimmers are magnetically actuated and controlled via a uniform rotating magnetic field generated by an approximate Helmholtz electromagnetic coil system. We characterized the microswimmer's velocity profile with respect to rotating frequency and analyzed the motion of the microswimmer using image processing. Finally, we demonstrated the controllability of the microswimmers by freely steering them in any desired directions. Published by AIP Publishing.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Fabrication and control of simple low Reynolds number microswimmers
- Creators
- U. Kei Cheang - Drexel UniversityMin Jun Kim - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Applied physics letters, v 109(3), p34101
- Publisher
- American Institute of Physics
- Number of pages
- 5
- Grant note
- 10052980 / Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) DMR 1306794 / National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF) Korea Institute of Science Technology (K-GRL program)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000381385900082
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84979294990
- Other Identifier
- 991019330809804721
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- Web of Science research areas
- Physics, Applied