Graphene micromotors spin forward

Researchers have found a way to make helical magnetic-responsive micromotors out of graphene. ↓↓More info and references below↓↓
Micromotors could someday zip through wastewater picking up pollutants or race through the bloodstream delivering drugs. Researchers have developed a number of strategies, such as chemical fuels and magnetic fields, to propel these tiny devices. Now, researchers have found a way to make helical magnetic-responsive micromotors out of graphene. The carbon material is attractive for micromotors because it’s easily functionalized and possesses a high surface area. Yet adapting current methods for making helical micromotors to graphene has been challenging. To that end, the team developed a cheap, simple method to pump out the coil-shaped motors. The team investigates the motors’ ability to navigate microchannels and also kill bacteria when armed with antibacterial silver. This work combines the advantages of graphene and magnetically-powered micromotors, which are more suitable for practical applications such as environmental remediation and biosensing than chemically-powered motors, says Wei Gao, a microrobotics expert at the California Institute of Technology.
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References:
Graphene-Based Helical Micromotors Constructed by “Microscale Liquid Rope-Coil Effect” with Microfluidics | ACS Nano
pubs.acs.org/d...
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