{"title":"Gel-Based Marangoni Actuators: Mechanisms, Material Designs, Driving Modes, and Cross-Scale Applications.","authors":"Xuehao Feng, Zhizheng Gao, Wenguang Yang, Shuliang Zhu","doi":"10.3390/gels11090730","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Marangoni actuators, rooted in interfacial tension gradients, stand as a significant advancement in micro-nano engineering. This review synthesizes their core mechanisms, which hinge on establishing gradients via temperature or solute concentration, with structural designs facilitating directional motion. Key actuation modalities, encompassing light, chemical, and electric driving, exhibit distinct characteristics in controllability and responsiveness. Their applications span cross-scale scenarios, from microscopic operations to macroscopic functional implementations. Current challenges involve optimizing performance and enhancing multi-field coordination, while future directions focus on advanced materials, intelligent regulation, and scalable fabrication. These actuators hold substantial potential in interdisciplinary fields, such as biomedicine, environmental engineering, and microfluidics.</p>","PeriodicalId":12506,"journal":{"name":"Gels","volume":"11 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12469534/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Gels","FirstCategoryId":"92","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3390/gels11090730","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"POLYMER SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Marangoni actuators, rooted in interfacial tension gradients, stand as a significant advancement in micro-nano engineering. This review synthesizes their core mechanisms, which hinge on establishing gradients via temperature or solute concentration, with structural designs facilitating directional motion. Key actuation modalities, encompassing light, chemical, and electric driving, exhibit distinct characteristics in controllability and responsiveness. Their applications span cross-scale scenarios, from microscopic operations to macroscopic functional implementations. Current challenges involve optimizing performance and enhancing multi-field coordination, while future directions focus on advanced materials, intelligent regulation, and scalable fabrication. These actuators hold substantial potential in interdisciplinary fields, such as biomedicine, environmental engineering, and microfluidics.
期刊介绍：
The journal Gels (ISSN 2310-2861) is an international, open access journal on physical (supramolecular) and chemical gel-based materials. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible. Therefore, there is no restriction on the maximum length of the papers, and full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced. Short communications, full research papers and review papers are accepted formats for the preparation of the manuscripts.
Gels aims to serve as a reference journal with a focus on gel materials for researchers working in both academia and industry. Therefore, papers demonstrating practical applications of these materials are particularly welcome. Occasionally, invited contributions (i.e., original research and review articles) on emerging issues and high-tech applications of gels are published as special issues.
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