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Amphibious Transport of Fluids and Solids by Soft Magnetic Carpets
Ahmet F Demirörs1, Sümeyye Aykut1, Sophia Ganzeboom1
1Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland.
Advanced Science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)
|September 16, 2021
Summary
Soft magnetic carpets, created via self-assembly, enable robust micromanipulation of liquids and solids. This breakthrough offers versatile applications in robotics and microfluidics, overcoming limitations of previous artificial cilia.
Area of Science:
- Robotics and Material Science
- Microfluidics and Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Controlling micromanipulation with active materials is a key challenge in robotics.
- Artificial cilia for pathogen clearance in the respiratory system often require complex manufacturing and are limited to liquid transport.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an easy self-assembly method for creating soft magnetic carpets for micromanipulation.
- To demonstrate the capability of these carpets for transporting both liquids and solid objects.
- To explore the tunability and novel transport effects for microfluidic applications.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of soft magnetic carpets using self-assembly based on the Rosensweig instability.
- Utilizing micromagnets and programmable magnetic fields for tunable control of carpet actuation.
- Modeling of observed cargo reversal effects arising from collective ciliary motion and elastohydrodynamics.
Main Results:
- Successfully created soft magnetic carpets through a simple self-assembly process.
- Demonstrated amphibious transport of liquids and solid objects larger/heavier than the carpet structures via a crowd-surfing effect.
- Identified and modeled two cargo reversal phenomena attributed to collective motion and elastohydrodynamics.
- Showcased reconfigurable transport control with high spatial resolution.
Conclusions:
- Soft magnetic carpets offer a versatile and robust platform for micromanipulation, surpassing limitations of existing artificial cilia.
- The demonstrated crowd-surfing effect and tunable transport have broad applicability in microfluidic systems for transport, mixing, and sorting.
- Novel cargo reversal effects present opportunities for advanced microfluidic applications such as viscosimetry and elastometry.
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