Light-Fueled Microscopic Walkers

Hao Zeng; Piotr Wasylczyk; Camilla Parmeggiani; Daniele Martella; Matteo Burresi; Diederik Sybolt Wiersma

doi:10.1002/adma.201501446

Light-Fueled Microscopic Walkers

Adv Mater. 2015 Jul 8;27(26):3883-7. doi: 10.1002/adma.201501446. Epub 2015 May 28.

Authors

Hao Zeng¹, Piotr Wasylczyk², Camilla Parmeggiani³, Daniele Martella⁴, Matteo Burresi³, Diederik Sybolt Wiersma¹

Affiliations

¹ European Laboratory for Non Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), University of Florence, via Nello Carrara 1, 50019, Sesto, Fiorentino, Italy.
² LENS and Institute of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, ul. Pasteura 5, 02-093, Warszawa, Poland.
³ LENS and Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (CNR-INO), via Nello Carrara 1, 50019, Sesto, Fiorentino, Italy.
⁴ LENS and Dipartimento di Chimica "Ugo Schiff", University of Florence, via della Lastruccia 3-13, 50019, Sesto, Fiorentino, Italy.

Abstract

The first microscopic artificial walker equipped with liquid-crystalline elastomer muscle is reported. The walker is fabricated by direct laser writing, is smaller than any known living terrestrial creatures, and is capable of several autonomous locomotions on different surfaces.

Keywords: artificial muscles; direct laser writing; liquid crystalline elastomers; locomotion; microscopic robots.