Review
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Jianting Zhang, Zhoujiang Chen, Ranjith Kumar Kankala, Shi-Bin Wang, Ai-Zheng Chen
Summary: Self-propelling micro-/nano-motors (MNMs) show enormous potential in various applications, such as drug delivery, by overcoming the challenge of low permeation of biological barriers. Research progress and application of these innovative motor designs are expected to play a crucial role in future clinical practice.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICS
(2021)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Conghui Liu, Jingyu Chen, Jiahui Liang, Tailin Xu, Xueji Zhang
Summary: Artificial micro/nanomotors have shown promising potential in nucleic acid biosensing, enabling targeted delivery of detection probes and improving sensitivity and specificity. This comprehensive overview discusses the advancements in nucleic acid biosensing through the integration of micro/nanomotors over the past decade. Various applications of micro/nanomotors in nucleic acid biosensing, including fluorescence recovery-based biosensing and aggregation-enhanced biosensing, are explored. Challenges hindering their practical applications and future development prospects are also discussed.
Article
Mechanics
Evgeny S. Asmolov, Tatiana Nizkaya, Olga Vinogradova
Summary: Catalytic Janus swimmers exhibit diffusiophoretic motion by generating gradients of concentrations and electric potential spontaneously. This study considers the experimentally relevant scenario of particles releasing both types of ions and derives a simple expression for particle velocity in the limit of a thin electrostatic diffuse layer. The approximate expression remains highly accurate even in the presence of large ion fluxes and surface potentials, and it offers explanations for several intriguing phenomena, such as the reversal of particle motion in response to variations in the salt concentration or the self-diffusiophoresis of uncharged particles.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Martina Ussia, Martin Pumera
Summary: Inspired by the desire to imitate nature, micro- and nanorobots have gained increasing interest. The use of organic components, such as polymers, can address the biocompatibility and biodegradability issues of inorganic-based microrobots. Additionally, combining self-powered micro- and nanorobots with the properties of macromolecules is an important area of research.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xianglong Lyu, Xiaoxia Liu, Chao Zhou, Shifang Duan, Pengzhao Xu, Jia Dai, Xiaowen Chen, Yixin Peng, Donghao Cui, Jinyao Tang, Xing Ma, Wei Wang
Summary: The popular principle of designing chemical micro-machines based on asymmetric chemical reactions like catalytic decomposition of H2O2 may not be sufficient in powering the micromotors into self-propulsion. Surface morphology plays a critical role in enabling/disabling the performance of catalytic caps on chemical micromotors. This study offers a refreshed perspective on understanding how chemistry powers nano- and microscopic objects by emphasizing the importance of an electrochemical mechanism over nonelectrochemical pathways in self-propulsion.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2021)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Wei Wang, Thomas E. Mallouk
Summary: The recent invention of nanoswimmers, synthetic, powered objects with characteristic lengths in the range of 10-500 nm, has generated widespread interest. However, studying nanoswimmers poses new opportunities and challenges, particularly in accurately characterizing and visualizing them.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xavier Arque, Tania Patino, Samuel Sanchez
Summary: Enzyme-powered micro- and nanomotors, inspired by nature, have shown great potential as biomedical tools and in various applications. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive understanding on how to rationally design and control their motion. This study provides a thorough bibliographic investigation on the key parameters that govern the propulsion of enzyme-powered devices and highlights the importance of intelligent selection and design based on specific applications.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Tianyi Liu, Lei Xie, Cameron-Alexander Hurd Price, Jian Liu, Qiang He, Biao Kong
Summary: Inspired by natural mobile microorganisms, researchers have developed micro/nanomotors (MNMs) that can autonomously move and have made tremendous progress in various biomedical applications. However, controversy and challenges still exist in propulsion mechanisms and motion manipulation of MNMs. Recently, diverse MNMs with different propulsion strategies, morphologies, sizes, porosities, and chemical structures have been fabricated and utilized for various purposes.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Xuemao Zhou, Shuo Wang, Longbin Xian, Zameer Hussain Shah, Yurou Li, Guanhua Lin, Yongxiang Gao
Summary: The experimental study demonstrates that the effect of added salt in the phoretic motion of chemically driven colloidal particles is influenced by various factors, including ionic strength, potential, and particle size. Furthermore, it is found that the direction of self-propulsion of Janus colloids can be reversed by decreasing their potential.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Haocheng Wang, Chenlu Liu, Xiaopeng Yang, Fengtong Ji, Wenping Song, Guangyu Zhang, Lin Wang, Yanhe Zhu, Shimin Yu, Weiwei Zhang, Tianlong Li
Summary: The study proposes a strategy using oriented magnetized Janus spheres to assemble microdimer robots, achieving performance of multiple tasks through multimode transformation and locomotion. The microdimer robot can provide versatile motion modes to address environmental variations or multitasking requirements.
Article
Mechanics
Johannes Voss, Raphael Wittkowski
Summary: The propulsion of colloidal particles using planar traveling ultrasound waves has become a topic of increasing interest. This article uses acoustofluidic simulations to investigate how the propulsion of bullet-shaped particles depends on their length and diameter. It is found that the propulsion strength of the particles increases with their length and diameter, and a sign change of propulsion is observed when varying the diameter. This study complements previous experimental work and provides insight into the choice of particle shapes for future experimental studies.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Serena Arnaboldi, Gerardo Salinas, Aleksandar Karajic, Patrick Garrigue, Tiziana Benincori, Giorgia Bonetti, Roberto Cirilli, Sabrina Bichon, Sebastien Gounel, Nicolas Mano, Alexander Kuhn
Summary: One key method for designing bioinspired machines is transferring concepts from nature to man-made structures by integrating biomolecules into artificial mechanical systems, allowing the conversion of molecular information into macroscopic action. Hybrid bioelectrochemical swimmers can convert chiral information into enantiospecific macroscopic trajectories, with potential biomedical applications and food quality testing.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Manyi Yang, Xia Guo, Fangzhi Mou, Jianguo Guan
Summary: This review provides an overview of fluorescent micro/nanorobots (MNRs) and highlights their potential applications in biomedicine. The review focuses on the fluorescent mechanisms, materials, and design strategies for integrating MNRs with fluorescence. Moreover, the main challenges and future directions for fluorescent MNRs are summarized.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Mengli Liu, Liang Chen, Zaiwang Zhao, Minchao Liu, Tiancong Zhao, Yuzhu Ma, Qiaoyu Zhou, Yasseen S. Ibrahim, Ahmed A. Elzatahry, Xiaomin Li, Dongyuan Zhao
Summary: In this study, the application of near-infrared optical brakes in mesoporous nanomotors was successfully achieved, enabling remote speed control of enzyme-based nanomotors. This innovative approach offers great potential for designing smart active drug delivery systems based on nanomotors.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
(2022)
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Fernando Soto, Emil Karshalev, Fangyu Zhang, Berta Esteban Fernandez de Avila, Amir Nourhani, Joseph Wang
Summary: In the past 15 years, the field of microrobotics has experienced explosive growth, and smart materials have played a crucial role. The future efforts in microrobotics will focus on propulsion and biocompatibility, cooperation between individual units and human operators, and intelligence.
Article
Instruments & Instrumentation
Wei Wang, Xiang-Gen Xia, Chuanjiang He, Zemin Ren, Jian Lu
Summary: In this paper, we propose an arc based fan-beam CT reconstruction algorithm and a new circle cone-beam CT reconstruction algorithm, and demonstrate their effectiveness through simulated experiments.
JOURNAL OF X-RAY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Huisi Wu, Shihuai Chen, Guilian Chen, Wei Wang, Baiying Lei, Zhenkun Wen
Summary: The study introduces a novel skin lesion segmentation method named FAT-Net, which integrates transformer branch and feature adaptation module to capture long-range dependencies and enhance feature fusion. Experimental results demonstrate the superior accuracy and inference speed of FAT-Net on four public datasets compared to state-of-the-art methods.
MEDICAL IMAGE ANALYSIS
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Physical
Yanchen Liu, Yafen Chen, Jing Wang, Wei Wang, Zhiyu Ding, Leyuan Li, Yang Zhang, Yida Deng, Junwei Wu, Yanan Chen
Summary: The hierarchical yolk-shell structured Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 cathode shows an initial coulombic efficiency of 85.8% and outstanding capacity retention rates of 89.1% after cycling at 2.0 C for 200 cycles. After cycling at 10.0 C for 500 cycles, the capacity retention rate is 93.8%, and for 1,000 cycles, it is 85.2%.
Editorial Material
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Juliane Simmchen, Larysa Baraban, Wei Wang
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xianglong Lyu, Jingyuan Chen, Jiayu Liu, Yixin Peng, Shifang Duan, Xing Ma, Wei Wang
Summary: Understanding and controlling the swimming direction of synthetic nano- and micromotors is of great importance. By studying the effects of platinum oxides on the movement of micromotors, a new method for controlling the swimming direction of these motors has been discovered.
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
(2022)
Article
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Chen Li, Zhishan Luo, Yulian Liu, Yi Wei, Xin He, Zhongwei Chen, Liming Zhang, Yulin Chen, Wei Wang, Yejing Liu, Xiaoyong Chang, Zewei Quan
Summary: In this study, a novel zero-dimensional hybrid metal halide compound with excitation-dependent dual emissions was synthesized. The compound exhibits tunable emission color and high thermal stability, making it a promising candidate for solid-state lighting applications.
ADVANCED OPTICAL MATERIALS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xi Chen, Yankai Xu, Chao Zhou, Kai Lou, Yixin Peng, H. P. Zhang, Wei Wang
Summary: It has been discovered that silver colloids form traveling waves in H2O2 and under light, which are heterogeneous excitable systems. These waves are generated through reaction-diffusion by the silver colloids and can either self-propel or be advected by diffusio-osmotic flows from neutral molecules. The experimental observation of OH- traveling waves and the development of a model that replicates the key features of colloidal waves contribute to understanding the oscillatory system of silver-H2O2-light at both individual and collective levels. Additionally, this research opens up possibilities for studying nonlinear phenomena, colloidal transport, and information transmission using colloidal waves in micro-robot ensembles.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xi Chen, Yankai Xu, Kai Lou, Yixin Peng, Chao Zhou, Wei Wang, H. P. Zhang
Summary: This study discovers a structured light technology that allows precise and programmable control of colloidal motion waves, including their origins, propagation directions, paths, shapes, annihilation, frequency, and speeds. These findings not only provide physical insights into the mechanism of colloidal waves, but also inspire biomimetic strategies for directional transport of mass, energy, and information at micro- and nanoscales.
Review
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xianglong Lyu, Jingyuan Chen, Ruitong Zhu, Jiayu Liu, Lingshan Fu, Jeffrey Lawrence Moran, Wei Wang
Summary: Microrotors are microscopic objects that convert energy stored in the environment into spontaneous rotation. They have various applications, including drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery, fluid mixing, and sensing. They are also useful as model systems to study collective behaviors among rotating micro-objects.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Liying Wang, Peiting Guo, Dongdong Jin, Yixin Peng, Xiang Sun, Yuduo Chen, Xiaoxia Liu, Wenjun Chen, Wei Wang, Xiaohui Yan, Xing Ma
Summary: There are various transport proteins on cell membranes that can actively move cargos across biological membranes, playing a crucial role in cell activities. Here, bionic micropumps for active transmembrane transportation of molecular cargos across living cells are developed using enzyme-powered microrobotic jets. By immobilizing urease onto the microtube's surface, the microjet can catalyze urea decomposition and generate microfluidic flow for self-propulsion. This work not only extends the applications of micro/nanomachines in biomedical fields but also provides a promising platform for future cell biology research.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Qiang Gao, Zhou Yang, Ruitong Zhu, Jinping Wang, Pengzhao Xu, Jiayu Liu, Xiaowen Chen, Zuyao Yan, Yixin Peng, Yanping Wang, Hairong Zheng, Feiyan Cai, Wei Wang
Summary: The researchers have discovered that ultrasound of around 100 kHz can spin spherical micromotors in specific directions and at varying speeds, as well as making them move in circular trajectories. This spinning is believed to be caused by circular microstreaming flows that occur when a solid microsphere vibrates in ultrasound. These flows can also assist in releasing cargos from micromotors. This finding shows that ultrasound can be used to steer microrobots in complex environments and manipulate microorganisms and cells.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xi Chen, Xiaowen Chen, Mohamed Elsayed, Harrison Edwards, Jiayu Liu, Yixin Peng, H. P. Zhang, Shuailong Zhang, Wei Wang, Aaron R. Wheeler
Summary: Researchers have developed an optoelectronic strategy to control the motion of micromotors using programmable light patterns. By illuminating hydrogenated amorphous silicon, local electric field maxima are generated at the edge of the light pattern, attracting micromotors. This method allows for precise control of micromotors in customized paths and through complex microstructures, as well as enabling multiple motion modes and parallel control of multiple micromotors.
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xiang Sun, Mengshi Wei, Xin Pang, Lin Lin, Qiang Gao, Lichao Su, Ting Liu, Youliang Yao, Jibin Song, Wei Wang, Xiaohui Yan
Summary: This study proposes a mechanism to enhance the sonodynamic efficacy by motion-induced hydrodynamic effects, demonstrating the use of a porphyrin-decorated gold nanomotor to produce reactive oxygen species for bacterial inactivation while performing multimodal motion through actuation using low-frequency ultrasound.
ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Xiaowen Chen, Xi Chen, Yixin Peng, Lailai Zhu, Wei Wang
Summary: Controlled colloidal levitation has various applications, and recent studies have shown that polymer microspheres can be levitated in AC electric fields. This phenomenon has been attributed to electrohydrodynamic flows, asymmetric electric fields, and electrodiffusiophoresis. In this study, we propose an alternative mechanism based on dielectrophoresis, where a spatially inhomogeneous electric field gradient is created by electrode polarization. Numerical models support this mechanism and demonstrate that AC colloidal levitation can be utilized to control the movement of synthetic microswimmers. This research enhances our understanding of colloidal particle dynamics near electrodes and opens up possibilities for using AC levitation to manipulate colloidal particles.
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Huisi Wu, Zebin Zhao, Jiafu Zhong, Wei Wang, Zhenkun Wen, Jing Qin
Summary: This article presents a lightweight context-aware network, PolypSeg+, for automatic polyp segmentation from colonoscopy videos. By incorporating adaptive scale context, efficient global context, and lightweight feature pyramid fusion modules, PolypSeg+ achieves better segmentation accuracy in real-time performance compared to state-of-the-art networks.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CYBERNETICS
(2023)
