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Nanoparticle mediated micromotor motion
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Nanoparticle mediated micromotor motion

Mei Liu, Limei Liu, Wenlong Gao, Miaoda Su, Ya Ge, Lili Shi, Hui Zhang, Bin Dong and Christopher Y Li
Nanoscale, v 7(11), pp 4949-4955
21 Mar 2015
PMID: 25689965

Abstract

In this paper, we report the utilization of nanoparticles to mediate the motion of a polymer single crystal catalytic micromotor. Micromotors have been fabricated by directly self-assembling functional nanoparticles (platinum and iron oxide nanoparticles) onto one or both sides of two-dimensional polymer single crystals. We show that the moving velocity of these micromotors in fluids can be readily tuned by controlling the nanoparticles' surface wettability and catalytic activity. A 3 times velocity increase has been achieved for a hydrophobic micromotor as opposed to the hydrophilic ones. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the catalytic activity of platinum nanoparticles inside the micromotor can be enhanced by their synergetic interactions with iron oxide nanoparticles and an electric field. Both strategies lead to dramatically increased moving velocities, with the highest value reaching ∼200 μm s(-1). By decreasing the nanoparticles' surface wettability and increasing their catalytic activity, a maximum of a ∼10-fold increase in the moving speed of the nanoparticle based micromotor can be achieved. Our results demonstrate the advantages of using nanoparticles in micromotor systems.

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22 citations in Scopus

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Physics, Applied
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