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research article

Highly motile nanoscale magnetic artificial cilia

Islam, Tanveer ul
•
Bellouard, Yves  
•
den Toonder, Jaap M. J.
August 25, 2021
Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America (PNAS)

Among the many complex bioactuators functioning at different scales, the organelle cilium represents a fundamental actuating unit in cellular biology. Producing motions at submicrometer scales, dominated by viscous forces, cilia drive a number of crucial bioprocesses in all vertebrate and many invertebrate organisms before and after their birth. Artificially mimicking motile cilia has been a long-standing challenge while inspiring the development of new materials and methods. The use of magnetic materials has been an effective approach for realizing microscopic artificial cilia; however, the physical and magnetic properties of the magnetic material constituents and fabrication processes utilized have almost exclusively only enabled the realization of highly motile artificial cilia with dimensions orders of magnitude larger than their biological counterparts. This has hindered the development and study of model systems and devices with inherent size-dependent aspects, as well as their application at submicrometer scales. In this work, we report a magnetic elastomer preparation process coupled with a tailored molding process for the successful fabrication of artificial cilia with submicrometer dimensions showing unprecedented deflection capabilities, enabling the design of artificial cilia with high motility and at sizes equal to those of their smallest biological counterparts. The reported work crosses the barrier of nanoscale motile cilia fabrication, paving the way for maximum control and manipulation of structures and processes at micro- and nanoscales.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1073/pnas.2104930118
Web of Science ID

WOS:000691662100012

Author(s)
Islam, Tanveer ul
Bellouard, Yves  
den Toonder, Jaap M. J.
Date Issued

2021-08-25

Publisher

National Academy of Sciences

Published in
Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America (PNAS)
Volume

118

Issue

35

Article Number

e2104930118

Subjects

magnetic elastomer

•

nano artificial

•

extreme deflection

•

high-frequency actuation

•

manipulation

•

elastomer

•

composites

•

actuation

•

arrays

•

flow

Note

Significance Cilia are hair-like microscopic structures present abundantly in our body and producing motions at the smallest scales. They perform a wide range of critical functions and are crucial for the normal functioning of our body. Abnormal functioning of cilia results in a number of diseases jointly known as ciliopathies. Artificially mimicking cilia is aimed at understanding their normal/abnormal functionality and at developing cilia-inspired micro-/nanoengineering devices. In this study, we present a magnetic polymer preparation process yielding a material with optimum properties and a cilia fabrication method producing the smallest highly motile artificial cilia with sizes equal to their biological counterparts. This opens avenues for biological studies and for creating submicrometer manipulation and control.

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
GALATEA  
Available on Infoscience
August 28, 2021
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/181056
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