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Self-assembly of robotic micro- and nanoswimmers using magnetic nanoparticles

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Abstract

Micro- and nanoscale robotic swimmers are very promising to significantly enhance the performance of particulate drug delivery by providing high accuracy at extremely small scales. Here, we introduce micro- and nanoswimmers fabricated using self-assembly of nanoparticles and control via magnetic fields. Nanoparticles self-align into parallel chains under magnetization. The swimmers exhibit flexibility under a rotating magnetic field resulting in chiral structures upon deformation, thereby having the prerequisite for non-reciprocal motion to move about at low Reynolds number. The swimmers are actuated wirelessly using an external rotating magnetic field supplied by approximate Helmholtz coils. By controlling the concentration of the suspended magnetic nanoparticles, the swimmers can be modulated into different sizes. Nanoscale swimmers are largely influenced by Brownian motion, as observed from their jerky trajectories. The microswimmers, which are roughly three times larger, are less vulnerable to the effects from Brownian motion. In this paper, we demonstrate responsive directional control of micro- and nanoswimmers and compare their respective diffusivities and trajectories to characterize the implications of Brownian disturbance on the motions of small and large swimmers. We then performed a simulation using a kinematic model for the magnetic swimmers including the stochastic nature of Brownian motion.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by National Science Foundation (CMMI 1000255), Army Research Office (W911NF-11-1-0490), and Korea Institute of Science and Technology Global Research Laboratory (K-GRL) awards to Min Jun Kim, and by National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRF) award to U. Kei Cheang.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    U. Kei Cheang & Min Jun Kim

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  1. U. Kei Cheang
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  2. Min Jun Kim
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Correspondence to Min Jun Kim.

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Guest Editors: Leonardo Ricotti, Arianna Menciassi

This article is part of the topical collection on Nanotechnology in Biorobotic Systems

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Cheang, U.K., Kim, M.J. Self-assembly of robotic micro- and nanoswimmers using magnetic nanoparticles. J Nanopart Res 17, 145 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-014-2737-z

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