Mechanical tweezer action by self-tightening knots in surfactant nanotubes

Entanglements and trefoil knots on surfactant nanotubes in the liquid phase were produced by a combination of network self-organization and micromanipulation. The resulting knots are self-tightening, and the tightening is driven by minimization of surface free energy of the surfactant membrane material. The formation of the knot and the steady-state knot at quasi-equilibrium can be directly followed and localized by using fluorescence microscopy. Knots on nanotubes can be used as nanoscale mechanical tweezers for trapping and manipulation of single nano- and micrometer-sized high-aspect ratio objects. Furthermore, we demonstrate that by controlling the surface tension, objects captured by a knot can be transported along given trajectories defined by the nanotube axes.