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Updated: Mar 7, 2026

Construction and Operation of a Light-driven Gold Nanorod Rotary Motor System
Published on: June 30, 2018
Magnetic microkayaks: propulsion of microrods precessing near a surface by kilohertz frequency, rotating magnetic
L O Mair1, E E Evans2, A Nacev1
1Weinberg Medical Physics, Inc., North Bethesda, Maryland 20817, USA. Lamar.Mair@gmail.com.
Abstract:
Surface-swimming nano- and micromotors hold significant potential for on-chip mixing, flow generation, sample manipulation, and microrobotics. Here we describe rotating microrods magnetized nearly orthogonally to their long axes. When actuated near a solid surface, these microrods demonstrate precessing motion, with rods describing a double cone similar to the motion of a kayaker's paddle. The precessing motion induces translation. At 1 kHz, these "microkayaks" move at translational velocities of ≈14 μm s-1 and generate advective flows up to 10 μm s-1.
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