Premium
Rational Design of Self‐Propelling Particles for Unified Cargo Loading and Transportation
Author(s) -
Kunti Golak,
Wu Yue,
Yossifon Gilad
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.202007819
Subject(s) - materials science , electric field , nanotechnology , particle (ecology) , coating , photolithography , substrate (aquarium) , dielectrophoresis , tilt (camera) , mechanical engineering , physics , microfluidics , engineering , quantum mechanics , geology , oceanography
Recent studies on electrically powered active particles that can both self‐propel and manipulate cargo load and release, have focused on both spherically shaped Janus particles (JP) and on a parallel electrically conducting plates setup. Yet, spherically shaped JPs set a geometrical limitation on the ability to smartly design multiple dielectrophoretic traps on a single active particle. Herein, these active carriers are extended to accommodate any desired shape and selective metallic coating, using a standard photolithography method. The resulting designed positive and negative dielectrophoretic traps of controlled size, location, and intensity, performed as sophisticated active carriers with a high level of control over their mobility and cargo loading. In addition to cargo loading, the engineered particles exhibit interesting motion in an electrically insulating substrate setup, with in‐plane electric field, and, in particular, a tilt angle, and even flipping, that strongly depended on the field frequency and amplitude, hence, exhibiting a much more diverse and rich behavior than spherical JP. The engineered self‐propelling carriers are expected to open up new possibilities for unified, label‐free and selective cargo loading, transport, and delivery of complex multi‐particles.