| The micro/nano motor is a movable device with the size of nanometer or micrometer, and has some special functions or can carry out some tasks in micro-system. The micro/nano motor has been a significant and cutting-edge research field in nano-engineering due to its great protential in chemistry, environment and biomedicine. Recent years, great progress has been achieved in the field of nano /micro motors, especially in fabrication and application. Based on the understanding of the behaviour principle of different micro/nano motors, various of low cost and easy methods have been established. Different shape and functional nano/micro motors have been created also. Especially applied in the environment remediation and bio-meidical field. The application of micro/nano motors in decontamination processes, water-quality screening, the removal of oil spills, material recognition, protein delivery, DNA identification, captruing of cancer cell, isolation of bacterium and disposing of oily water were reported subsequently, which is attracting scientists’ great interest. Now, how to control the movment of various motors precisely to accomplish complicated task in micro-system is a trend of the reasearch of micro/nano motor. In this paper, a comperohensive introduction to micro/nano motors including their type, working princinple, primary fabrication methods and applications in various filed are given in order to promote the development of micro/nano motors in the future, we mainly introduce our work about exploration for new propelling modes and applications of synthetic micro/nano motor.Catalytic micro/nano motors is a kind of self-propelled device which could convert chemical energy to mechanical energy by chemistry catalytic reaction. It is the one of the most promising micro/nano motors in the future. According to the different kind of fuels, they can divide in to water-driven, hydrazine-driven, hydrogen peroxide-driven and acid-driven.Water-driven catalytic micro/nanomotors is always attract people’s research due to the environment friendly property of water. In the second chapter, we demonstrated a highly efficient light-driven photocatalytic TiO2/Au Janus micromotor with wireless steering and velocity control is described. Unlike chemically-propelled micromotors which commonly require the addition of surfactants or toxic chemical fuels, the fuel-free Janus micromoto can be powered in pure water under an extremely low ultraviolet light intensity(2.5×10-3 W/cm2), and with 40 ×10-3 W/cm2, they can reach a high speed of 25 body length/s which is comparable to common Pt-based chemically-induced self-electrophoretic Janus micromotors. In addition, such Janus micromotors could be propelled in contaminated water with autonomous ‘on-the-fly’ degrade of dyes due to the photocatalytic performance of TiO2. The attractive fuel-free propulsion performance, fast movement triggering response, low light energy requirement, highly photocatalytic properties and precise motion control of the new Janus photo-catalytic micromotor hold considerable promise for diverse practical applications.Hydrazine-driven micro/nano motors is a new type catalytic synthetic micro/nano motors. In the third chapter, we designed catalytic micromotors iridium Janus micromotors powered by extremly low concentrations of hydrazine, down to the 0.0000001% level. It is the first time using hydrazine as the fuel for micromotors. The micromotors are self-propelled at a very high speed(of ~20 body lengths/s–1) in a 0.001% hydrazine solution due to osmotic effects. Such a low fuel concentration represents a 10,000-fold decrease in the level required for common catalytic nanomotors. In spire of the Iridium-based Janus micromotor which could be propelled in extremely low concentration of hydrazine fuel, we designed an efficient vapor-powered propulsion of catalytic micromotors without direct addition of fuel to the micromotor solution. Diffusion of hydrazine vapor from the surrounding atmosphere into the sample solution is instead used to trigger rapid movement of iridium-gold Janus microsphere motors. The new vapor-powered catalytic micro/nanomotors offer new opportuni-ties in gas sensing, threat detection, and environmental monitoring.Hydrogen peroxide-driven micro/nano motors is the most common catalytic micro/nano motors, however, great limitation of such kind of catalytic micro/nano motors in various applications due to the toxic properity of hydrogen peroxide with high concentration. In the forth chapter, we designed a new PEDOT/CNT-Pt microrocket which could be propelled in ultra low hydrogen peroxide concentration(0.1%), the speed could be reach 50 μm/s. It is greatly improved the utilization of peroxide and expand the application of such kind of catalytic micromotors.Acid driven zinc-based motors hold great promise for in vivo use, particularly for gastric drug delivery, because of their unique features, including acid-powered propulsion, high loading capacity, autonomous release of payloads, and nontoxic self-destruction. As a result, in the fifth chapter, we report an in vivo study of artificial micromotors in a living organism using a mouse model. This work is anticipated to open the door to in vivo evaluation and clinical applications of these synthetic motors.In this paper, we briefly introduced the synthetic micromotors, in addition, we mainly described our works about a series of catalytic micro/nano motors, including light driven, chemistry fuel driven(hydrazine and hydrogen peroxide) and acid driven, we mainly forcus on the fabrication and the performance of these micor/nano motors. Investigation of synthetic micromotors in one of the most important project amoung the micro/nano scale research field, and it is significant for diverse practicle applications in the future!... |
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