Single-Atom Nanoarchitectonics for Robotics and Other Functions

For a sustainable society, the development of materials must be carried out with the aim of maintaining good economic activity in the long term without damaging the global environment or overusing resources. Therefore, there is an increasing need for the development of advanced and sensitive materials. It has become clear that structural control at the nanoscale is particularly important for efficient and highly selective functional expression. This can be achieved with an emerging methodology of nanoarchitectonics, which is the concept of building functional materials from individual atoms, molecules, and their clusters into nanomaterials. One of the ultimate goals of this line of research is to construct extremely precise functional dynamic systems originating at the atomic and molecular levels. From this point of view, single-atom catalysts can be considered as the active components to achieve this goal. This Perspective discusses functional systems that implement single-atom catalysts as active components in the field of nano/microrobotics. Single-atom-decorated nano/microrobots are dynamic systems that exploit the catalytic activity of single atoms; they can be used to enhance propulsion abilities or to provide the catalytic capability. This Perspective consists of three main parts: (i) reviews on single-atom catalysts and others; (ii) single-atom-decorated nano/microrobots; (iii) other functions of single-atom nanoarchitectonics. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion on the future direction and development of single-atom-decorated nano/microrobots. In particular, it is expected that the next generation of intelligent single-atom-decorated nano/microrobots will be developed using artificial intelligence. The combination of the basic story, the main story, and the side story will affect the diversity and future potential in the research fields of single-atom nanoarchitectonics for robotics and other functions.