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Electric-Field-Driven Micro/Nanomachines for Biological Applications

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Field-Driven Micro and Nanorobots for Biology and Medicine

Abstract

The electric tweezers based on the combined AC and DC electric fields have been proven to be a powerful nano-manipulation tool in precisely controlling the position, speed, and orientation of longitudinal nanoparticles. The ability to do so has led to advanced applications in biology such as the first in vitro biomolecule delivery to single live cells by the manipulation of nanowires, transport of cargo, assembly of arrays of rotary micro/nanoelectromechanical devices, and tunable biomolecule release. The principle of high-speed electric rotation might also be exploited toward enhanced capturing and sensing of dilute biomolecules in suspension. Furthermore, the working principles of the electric tweezers and factors that may influence the locomotion of the micro-/nanomotors such as the Reynolds number and electric double layer are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the support of the National Science Foundation (grant no. 1710922 and 1930649) and The Welch Foundation (grant no. F-1734).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Science and Engineering Program, Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Hyungmok Joh

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Donglei (Emma) Fan

Authors
  1. Hyungmok Joh
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  2. Donglei (Emma) Fan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donglei (Emma) Fan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Robotics Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Yu Sun

  2. Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Xian Wang

  3. Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

    Jiangfan Yu

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Joh, H., Fan, D.(. (2022). Electric-Field-Driven Micro/Nanomachines for Biological Applications. In: Sun, Y., Wang, X., Yu, J. (eds) Field-Driven Micro and Nanorobots for Biology and Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80197-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80197-7_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-80196-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-80197-7

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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