Bioinspired Lubricated Slippery Magnetic Responsive Microplate Array for High Performance Multi-Substance Transport

Abstract

In nature, many organisms have the ability to transport substances, such as bubbles, droplets, or solids, on demand to meet their survival needs. Inspired by these distinct behaviors, a variety of substance transport strategies have been developed for promising applications in microfluidics, microelectronics, and biomedicine. However, it is still challenging to achieve versatile multi-substance (gas, liquid, and solid) transport. In this work, a triple-biologically inspired lubricated slippery magnetic-responsive microplate array (LS-MMA) by integrating the characteristics of fish scales, Nepenthes peristome, and respiratory cilia is proposed for multi-substance transport. Under the actuation of the moving magnetic field, the microplates bend and overlap sequentially to form a continuous slippery surface with large curvature. With the continuous motion of the slippery surface, active multi-substance transport can be realized. The transport speed of the bubbles, droplets, and solid glass balls can reach ≈5, ≈14, and ≈80 mm s⁻¹, respectively. By virtue of the lubricant's capillary sticking property to the substance, the LS-MMA also realizes 3D on-demand transport of bubbles and droplets. The LS-MMA-based multi-substance transport strategy improves the applicability and flexibility of target manipulation and has a broad potential application in the fields of microchemical reactions and biomedical engineering.