Rational Design of Self-Propelling Particles for Unified Cargo Loading and Transportation

Golak Kunti, Yue Wu, Gilad Yossifon*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2007819
JournalSmall
Volume17
Issue number17
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Apr 2021
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
Israel Science FoundationISF 1938/16

    Keywords

    • active carriers
    • cargo loading and transport
    • dielectrophoresis
    • engineered active particles
    • self-propelling particles

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