High-Speed Propulsion of Flexible Nanowire Motors: Theory and Experiments

Details High-Speed Propulsion of Flexible Nanowire Motors: Theory and Experiments High-Speed Propulsion of Flexible Nanowire Motors: Theory and Experiments

2011-09-08

arxiv.org/abs/1109.1631v1

Soft Matter, 7, 8169-8181, 2011

Physics

Fluid Dynamics

Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental details and a series of videos demonstrating nanowire swimm

Scientific paper

10.1039/C1SM05503H

Micro/nano-scale propulsion has attracted considerable recent attention due to its promise for biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery. In this paper, we report on a new experimental design and theoretical modelling of high-speed fuel-free magnetically-driven propellers which exploit the flexibility of nanowires for propulsion. These readily prepared nanomotors display both high dimensional propulsion velocities (up to ~ 21 micrometer per second) and dimensionless speeds (in body lengths per revolution) when compared with natural microorganisms and other artificial propellers. Their propulsion characteristics are studied theoretically using an elastohydrodynamic model which takes into account the elasticity of the nanowire and its hydrodynamic interaction with the fluid medium. The critical role of flexibility in this mode of propulsion is illustrated by simple physical arguments, and is quantitatively investigated with the help of an asymptotic analysis for small-amplitude swimming. The theoretical predictions are then compared with experimental measurements and we obtain good agreement. Finally, we demonstrate the operation of these nanomotors in a real biological environment (human serum), emphasizing the robustness of their propulsion performance and their promise for biomedical applications.

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