Banana leaves have become the "muse of inspiration" for scientists, and the research results are expected to be used for the precise killing of cancer cells and the efficient degradation of organic pollutants.
The related paper was published under the title of "Dual-function Biohybrid Magnetically Driven Microrobot". The first author is Dr. Chen Ting, and the corresponding authors are Associate Researcher Dong Renfeng, Professor Cai Yuepeng and Professor Ren Biye of South China University of Technology, School of Chemistry, South China Normal University.
It is understood that in the initial selection of materials, the team hoped to not only integrate functions, but also control the cost of raw materials, and have certain requirements for structure and performance. After investigation, they selected the helical microcatheter isolated from banana leaves as the biological template for constructing the main body of the magnetically driven microrobot.
According to Dr. Dong Renfeng, the previous application of the biomass structure to magnetism has high requirements for equipment, and it needs to be completed in a vacuum environment, which is difficult to achieve mass production; some biomass even in a vacuum environment, because the moisture in it is quickly drained. , causing its structure to collapse. Therefore, they changed the traditional physical method and used electroless plating. In this way, only by soaking the extracted biological template into the corresponding chemical solution at room temperature, a magnetically driven microrobot with good magnetic properties and retaining the original structure of the biological template can be obtained.
Regarding the potential application scenarios of this research, Dr. Renfeng Dong said that the previous micro-nano robots usually only had one application potential, but the magnetically driven micro-robots they developed based on biological templates integrated both biomedical and environmental governance applications. The magnetically driven microrobot has many excellent characteristics such as simple manufacture, cost-effectiveness, and efficient propulsion, and shows good application prospects in environmental and biological applications.
In terms of biological applications, on the one hand, the new magnetically driven microrobot can accurately approach cancer cells through its highly controllable motion performance; on the other hand, due to the special chemical interaction between the magnetically driven microrobot and the surface of cancer cells, It can precisely capture cancer cells. In addition, since the surface-modified functional material Fe 3 + - Ta has better photothermal effect, after successfully capturing cancer cells, heat can be further generated under light to kill these cancer cells. The magnetically driven microrobot can realize a series of refined operations for precise targeted capture of cancer cells, controllable path transportation, and efficient photothermal killing, and is expected to perform micro-nano-level precise diagnosis and treatment in the living body in the future.
Dr. Dong Renfeng said that their team has also done a lot of work on light-driven micro-nano robots. In the future, it is hoped that this new magnetic-driven micro-robot based on biological templates has both the characteristics of magnetic drive and the advantages of light drive to expand to More application scenarios.
Overall, the highlights of this study are two-fold. On the one hand, the biological template selected has natural advantages, and the later artificially modified materials have the characteristics of directional functionalization. From the perspective of future development, it is the general trend to combine biological and artificial materials in nature; Nanorobots are a current emerging technology with extremely broad development prospects. They are expected to shine in many fields such as biological detection, intelligent drug delivery, environmental governance, and micro-nano assembly. Multifunctional integration can also be achieved, which may become a new trend in the field of micro-nano robotics.
In the next step, the team will continue to carry out in-depth research on the application of micro-nano robots. Dong Renfeng mentioned that the magnetic drive method they provided for the micro-nano robot belongs to the external field-driven type, and will carry out more basic research on the preparation, motion optimization and application of the external-field-driven micro-nano robot, especially in natural biological The biological hybrid robot that combines the body and the artificial micro-nano structure will be further advanced, for example, the combination of microorganisms, microalgae, cells, etc. with the fine micro-nano structure, hoping to develop both the natural advantages of the organism itself, and the artificial An intelligent "living body-micromachine" combined micro-nano robot with specified functions of micro-nano structure.
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