Light- and magnetically actuated FePt microswimmers

Vincent Mauricio Kadiri, Jan Philipp Günther, Sai Nikhilesh Kottapalli, Rahul Goyal, Florian Peter, Mariana Alarcón-Correa, Kwanghyo Son, Hannah Noa Barad, Michael Börsch, Peer Fischer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Externally controlled microswimmers offer prospects for transport in biological research and medical applications. This requires biocompatibility of the swimmers and the possibility to tailor their propulsion mechanisms to the respective low Reynolds number environment. Here, we incorporate low amounts of the biocompatible alloy of iron and platinum (FePt) in its L1 phase in microstructures by a versatile one-step physical vapor deposition process. We show that the hard magnetic properties of L1 FePt are beneficial for the propulsion of helical micropropellers with rotating magnetic fields. Finally, we find that the FePt coatings are catalytically active and also make for Janus microswimmers that can be light-actuated and magnetically guided.

Original languageEnglish
Article number74
JournalEuropean Physical Journal E
Volume44
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Jun 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Funding

P.F. and M.B. acknowledge funding from the DFG (Projekt No. 253407113 under the SPP program 1726). HNB would like to thank the Minerva Stiftung for funding. SNK thanks the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems (IMPRS-IS) for support. The authors thank Cornelia Miksch, Helmut Kammerlander, and Kersten Hahn and Peter van Aken for Langmuir–Blodgett fabrication, quartz ampoule fabrication, and EDX measurements, respectively. We thank Dr. Sven Schnichel’s laboratory at the Tübingen University Hospital for providing the ARPE-19 cell line and Prof. Dr. Joachim Spatz for access to scanning electron microscopes. The authors would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting control experiments without Ti. P.F. and M.B. acknowledge funding from the DFG (Projekt No. 253407113 under the SPP program 1726). HNB would like to thank the Minerva Stiftung for funding. SNK thanks the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems (IMPRS-IS) for support. The authors thank Cornelia Miksch, Helmut Kammerlander, and Kersten Hahn and Peter van Aken for Langmuir?Blodgett fabrication, quartz ampoule fabrication, and EDX measurements, respectively. We thank Dr. Sven Schnichel?s laboratory at the T?bingen University Hospital for providing the ARPE-19 cell line and Prof. Dr. Joachim Spatz for access to scanning electron microscopes. The authors would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting control experiments without Ti.

FundersFunder number
Cornelia Miksch
Helmut Kammerlander
International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems
T?bingen University Hospital
Minerva Foundation
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft253407113

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