Themed collection Micro- and nano-motors

Li Zhang, Martin Pumera, Samuel Sánchez and Xing Ma introduce the Nanoscale and Journal of Materials Chemistry B cross-journal themed collection on micro- and nano-motors.

Micro/nanomotor swarms propelled by diverse mechanisms.

Utilizing the capabilities of "nanomotors," "nanomachines," and "nanorobotics" can revolutionize air purification, transitioning from passive approaches to intelligent, active nanoscale control systems.

This minireview summarizes the current progress in active therapy based on the byproducts produced or generated during the motion process of micro/nanomotors.

Synthetic micro/nanomotors have attracted considerable attention due to their promising potential in the field of biomedicine.

This review provides inspiration and promotes the clinical application of light-driven micro/nanomotors in the biomedical field.

In this review, we delved into an elaborate exposition of different detection principles reliant on micro/nanomotors (MNMs), explore the challenges encountered by MNMs under distinct detection principles, and discuss potential future solutions.

We elucidate the advancement of micro/nanomotor-based nucleic acid biosensing over the past decade, including fluorescence recovery-based biosensing, velocity change-based biosensing, and aggregation-enhanced biosensing.

Designing chemical composites using advanced nanomaterials results in micro/nanorobots with exceptional autonomous navigation ability and bio-chemical functionality.

This review discusses the current status of micro/nanorobotic applications by focusing on preclinical studies conducted with animal models.

In this study, we investigated how different shapes affect the velocity of Zn/SU-8 micromotors.

We report the first experimental observation of tracer spinning in place alongside chemically powered individual nano/micromotors.

Magnetically assembled Janus particles display orientation-dependent motions in AC electric fields. The regimes of motion are studied by experiments and modeling to understand and inform future microrobot design.

A rod-like DNA origami circuit platform, featuring sticky ends near each semi-flexible hinge can operate two-state and tri-state logic gate by using configuration change as output signals.

Interference of three pairs of mutually perpendicular Gaussian beams (top left image); stretching or compressing DNA with dynamic optical lattice (images on the right); slice plots of normalized potential energy at three orthogonal planes and the corresponding optical forces (bottom left image).

The interaction of self-propelled nanomotors with biological media is of outmost relevance when considering their actuation within biological contexts. Here, we explored how protein corona forms around active nanomotors using STORM.

Nano/micromotors are self-propelled particles that show enhanced motion upon being triggered by a stimulus.

The underlying mechanisms of catalytic Janus microswimmers is highly complex, requiring details of associated phoretic fields and boundaries. We demonstrate that a coarse-grained dissipative particle-hydrodynamics model can describe the behaviour of several chemical microswimmers.

As emerging nanosystems, nanomotors have been applied in the active treatment of many diseases.

We introduce a soft acousto-magnetic microrobot leveraging acoustic streaming for propulsion and mixing. The manipulation strategy exploits the distinct advantages of each applied field, precise magnetic orientation, and powerful acoustic propulsion.

Ultrasound-propelled Janus nanomotors exhibit rapid cellular internalization with the aid of an ultrasonic field and effectively induce cancer cell ferroptosis due to synergistic generated reactive oxygen species.

The NIR-driven green affording-oxygen microrobot (CurNPs-C) consists of curcumin-loaded nanoparticles and Chlorella. Under two NIR treatments, CurNPs-C accumulates in tumors and further produces oxygen, which enhances the photodynamic therapy.

A magnetic microrobot has been developed using natural materials derived from the extracellular matrix (ECM) to mimic the ligand–receptor interaction between cancer cells and the ECM, offering targeted elimination of circulating tumor cells.

nBGs@Pt are prepared by a modified sol–gel method and magnetron sputtering using H₂O₂ as fuel and are shown to have enough power to enter dentin tubules, with a blocking rate of 58.05%, after remineralization the blocking rate can reach 96.07%.

Magnetic-controlled ferrofluidic robots demonstrate exceptional precision in efficiently navigating complex 3D paths, which enhances their applicability across diverse fields, including medicine, micromanipulation, and bioengineering.

Acid-driven magnetic imprinting micromotors for selective recognition and loading of phycocyanin, presenting observable acid-driven motion trajectories in acidic solutions and visualized phycocyanin loading.

Water pollutants such as oil spills, industrial dyes, and microplastics threaten public health and aquatic ecosystems.

Rod-shaped light-driven micromotors exhibit multimode swimming behavior based on the pH of the medium.

Biomimetic design is very helpful and significant for the smart construction of micro/nanomotors with artificial intelligence.

Here, we introduce self-propelled biocatalytic micromotors for simultaneous organic pollutant removal and green energy generation. The study demonstrates remarkable results, showcasing the potential to generate ammonia from wastewater in short time.

We present a multi-functional “medical ship” that can be rapidly driven by a magnetic field and can reversibly “open” and “close” its internal storage space under near-infrared laser irradiation.

An active drug delivery platform of Mg micromotors is proposed to overcome MDR and enhance drug permeability for treating HCC.

We present a bench-top colloidal approach for fabricating three-lobed magnetic microrobots. These microrobots showed promising results for single-cell transportation in a fluid.

In this work, we integrated BaTiO₃ nanoparticles into a multi-functional biotemplated helical microrobot that can be magnetically manipulated and has ultrasound piezocatalytic capabilities for conducting minimally invasive amyloidosis therapy.

Pac-Man TiO₂ particles exhibit excellent photocatalytic properties. Degradation of highly reactive H₂O₂ leads to microscale propulsion, and the reactive oxygen species enable dye and polymer decomposition, even though at much slower time scales.

A milliswimmer experimental platform is used to provide ground truth swimmer trajectories of different designs for developing new dynamics models.

A new drug delivery strategy: using magnetic nanoparticle swarms to cross discontinuous peritumoral vessel Walls.

Efficient antibacterial performances (up to 98.89% against S. aureus) are achieved with light-driven MOFtors (PPy/ZIF-8) due to the boosted Zn²⁺ release by vigorous stirring motion and physical entrapment by the upward motion under light irradiation.

By making full use of magnetic gold nanocomposite intrinsic properties, a nanozymatic magnetic nanomotor is proposed to improve the effects of photothermal treatment and SERS sensing, realizing the integration of dual driving mechanisms and dual biomedical functions on one nanomotor.

Stimulated by an electric field, the plasmonic thermal energy can be applied to drive a millimetre-sized actuator, showing promising applications.

A ligand-free ultrasmall Pt NPs-modified flasklike colloidal motor exhibits ultrafast motility and enhanced ion tolerance.

Migration of a short single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) between DNA overhangs is a basic molecular process that is widely used in dynamic DNA nanotechnology.

An assembled CNT-DNA nanomotor rotates in a dual nanopore system driven by electroosmotic flow.

A triaxial microfluidic chip and a magnetic drive system developed in this paper greatly reduce the complexity and cost of the system. The prepared capsule microrobots have excellent potential for drug delivery in similar vascular microchannels.

A fuel-free strategy for the eradication of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus biofilms using WS₂ and MoS₂ photophoretic microflakes is described.

We propose an active Au–Zn nanomotor driven by water and discovered an interesting adaptive interaction mode of diffusiophoretic Au–Zn nanomotors with passive condensate particles in different environments.

H₂S nanomotors show potential for the active treatment of AKI.

Light-induced swarming behavior of Sb₂S₃ microrobots and their photocatalytic behavior.