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Light‐Driven Janus Hollow Mesoporous TiO 2 –Au Microswimmers
Author(s) -
Sridhar Varun,
Park ByungWook,
Sitti Metin
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201704902
Subject(s) - janus , materials science , mesoporous material , nanotechnology , photocatalysis , drug delivery , ultraviolet light , mesoporous silica , chemical engineering , optoelectronics , chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering , catalysis
Light‐driven microswimmers have garnered attention for their potential use in various applications, such as environmental remediation, hydrogen evolution, and targeted drug delivery. Janus hollow mesoporous TiO 2 /Au (JHP–TiO 2 –Au) microswimmers with enhanced swimming speeds under low‐intensity ultraviolet (UV) light are presented. The swimmers show enhanced swimming speeds both in presence and absence of H 2 O 2 . The microswimmers move due to self‐electrophoresis when UV light is incident on them. There is a threefold increase in speed of JHP–TiO 2 –Au microswimmers in comparison with Janus solid TiO 2 /Au (JS–TiO 2 –Au) microswimmers. This increase in their speed is due to the increase in surface area of the porous swimmers and their hollow structure. These microswimmers are also made steerable by using a thin Co magnetic layer. They can be used in potential environmental applications for active photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue and targeted active drug delivery of an anticancer drug (doxurobicin) in vitro in H 2 O 2 solution. Their increased speed from the presence of a hollow mesoporous structure is beneficial for future potential applications, such as hydrogen evolution, selective heterogeneous photocatalysis, and targeted cargo delivery.