Liquid crystal polymers for microrobotics and tissues engineering

  • Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale
  • Seminario

Relatori

Daniele Martella

Dettagli

Manipulating objects at the micro and nano scale is an open fascinating challenge that scientists are addressing by proposing different approaches to obtain machines with basic or complex functions. Combining shape-changing polymers that respond to optical stimuli with 3D structuration at the microscale,
we demonstrated synthetic microrobots entirely powered by light with a non-invasive and remote control. The arbitrary design allows to reproduce diverse animal and even humanoid tasks as walking and swimming or grab and manipulate objects - overcoming natural limitations present at such small scale.
The devices have been realized by Liquid Crystalline Networks (LCNs) which offer the possibility to perform different movements depending on their molecular alignment and, controlling by light their elastic deformation, wireless activation of micro-machines is obtained. A micro walker is able to advance on
different substrates; a micro swimmer to be prompted in liquids by structured light; a micro hand can catch micro objects by an external light control and even autonomously, depending on the target optical properties.

The same materials have been demonstrated biocompatible towards different cell lines. More interestingly, LCNs are able to induce a spontaneous unidirectional alignment of cells during their culturing opening to a new methodology for the morphogenesis control of biological tissues in vitro.