Hydrogen bubble propelled tubular micromotor engineered via self-rolling of nanomembrane

IF 4.9 3区工程技术 Q2 ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC

Sensors and Actuators A-physical Pub Date : 2025-09-17 DOI:10.1016/j.sna.2025.117064

Hongye Qin , Bendong Liu , Runqiu Wu , Lezhi Ye , Jiahui Yang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Micromotors demonstrate significant potential in environmental sensing, targeted biomedical therapeutics, and microscale engineering applications due to their miniaturized architecture and ability to harness environmental energy for autonomous propulsion. Nevertheless, current magnesium (Mg)-based micromotors predominantly utilize Mg microspheres as their structural foundation, restricting geometric diversity and limiting performance improvements. This paper presents a self-propelled Mg-based micromotor fabricated via the self-rolling of titanium (Ti)/magnesium (Mg) bilayer nanomembranes. Through synergistic integration of nanomembrane patterning, bilayer stress engineering, and directional sacrificial layer release, we achieved programmable assembly of three-dimensional (3D) single-tube and V-shaped double-tube architectures. The V-shaped double-tube micromotor features a hollow, asymmetric architecture with expanded Mg-acetic acid (CH₃COOH) interfacial contact area. This configuration enables directional ejection of the generated hydrogen bubbles, thereby enhancing propulsion force and increasing speed. The double-tube micromotor achieved a propulsion speed of approximately 203 μm/s in a solution of 1.2 % CH₃COOH, significantly outperforming the 52 μm/s speed of single-tube and surpassing the speed of Janus Mg microspheres in strong acid. The Mg-based micromotor proposed in this study features structural versatility and preferable motion performance. Combined with the known biocompatibility of Ti/Mg and the therapeutic potential of hydrogen, this work may hold potential for future applications in targeted drug delivery and hydrogen-mediated synergistic therapy.

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利用纳米膜自滚技术设计的氢泡推进管状微电机

微电机由于其小型化的结构和利用环境能源进行自主推进的能力，在环境传感、靶向生物医学治疗和微尺度工程应用方面显示出巨大的潜力。然而，目前基于镁（Mg）的微电机主要采用镁微球作为结构基础，限制了几何多样性和性能的提高。提出了一种利用钛(Ti)/镁（Mg）双层纳米膜的自滚动制备自推进式镁基微马达的方法。通过纳米膜图图化、双层应力工程和定向牺牲层释放的协同集成，我们实现了三维单管和v型双管结构的可编程组装。v型双管微电机具有中空的不对称结构，具有扩展的mg -乙酸（CH₃COOH）界面接触面积。这种配置可以使产生的氢气气泡定向喷射，从而增强推进力并提高速度。在1.2 % CH3COOH溶液中，双管微马达的推进速度约为203 μm/s，显著优于单管微马达的52 μm/s，超过Janus Mg微球在强酸中的速度。本研究提出的镁基微电机具有结构通用性和良好的运动性能。结合已知的Ti/Mg的生物相容性和氢的治疗潜力，这项工作可能在未来的靶向药物递送和氢介导的协同治疗中具有潜在的应用前景。

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来源期刊

Sensors and Actuators A-physical 工程技术-工程：电子与电气

CiteScore

8.10

自引率

6.50%

发文量

630

审稿时长

49 days

期刊介绍： Sensors and Actuators A: Physical brings together multidisciplinary interests in one journal entirely devoted to disseminating information on all aspects of research and development of solid-state devices for transducing physical signals. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical regularly publishes original papers, letters to the Editors and from time to time invited review articles within the following device areas: • Fundamentals and Physics, such as: classification of effects, physical effects, measurement theory, modelling of sensors, measurement standards, measurement errors, units and constants, time and frequency measurement. Modeling papers should bring new modeling techniques to the field and be supported by experimental results. • Materials and their Processing, such as: piezoelectric materials, polymers, metal oxides, III-V and II-VI semiconductors, thick and thin films, optical glass fibres, amorphous, polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon. • Optoelectronic sensors, such as: photovoltaic diodes, photoconductors, photodiodes, phototransistors, positron-sensitive photodetectors, optoisolators, photodiode arrays, charge-coupled devices, light-emitting diodes, injection lasers and liquid-crystal displays. • Mechanical sensors, such as: metallic, thin-film and semiconductor strain gauges, diffused silicon pressure sensors, silicon accelerometers, solid-state displacement transducers, piezo junction devices, piezoelectric field-effect transducers (PiFETs), tunnel-diode strain sensors, surface acoustic wave devices, silicon micromechanical switches, solid-state flow meters and electronic flow controllers. Etc...