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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Construction and Operation of a Light-driven Gold Nanorod Rotary Motor System
Published on: June 30, 2018
Magnetically actuated nanorod arrays as biomimetic cilia
B A Evans1, A R Shields, R Lloyd Carroll
1The Virtual Lung Project, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
Abstract:
We present a procedure for producing high-aspect-ratio cantilevered micro- and nanorod arrays of a PDMS-ferrofluid composite material. The rods have been produced with diameters ranging from 200 nm to 1 mum and aspect ratios as high as 125. We demonstrate actuation of these superparamagnetic rod arrays with an externally applied magnetic field from a permanent magnet and compare this actuation with a theoretical energy-minimization model. The structures produced by these methods may be useful in microfluidics, photonic, and sensing applications.
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