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Professor Wu Dong's team at the University of Science and Technology of China created a "dancing microrobot" using femtosecond laser composite materials.

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2023-08-11 14:28:54
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It was learned from the University of Science and Technology of China that the team of Professor Wu Dong of the Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratory of the school proposed a femtosecond laser two-in-one multi-material processing strategy, manufactured a micromechanical joint composed of temperature-sensitive hydrogel and metal nanoparticles, and then developed a multi-joint humanoid micromachine with a variety of deformation modes. The results were published in Nature Communications.
 
In recent years, femtosecond laser two-photon polymerization, as a true 3D processing method with nanometer precision, has been widely used to fabricate various functional microstructures. These microstructures show broad application prospects in the fields of micro-nano optics, microsensors and micromachine systems. However, how to use femtosecond laser to realize composite multi-material processing and further build micro-nano machinery with multi-mode is still a great challenge.
 
According to the researchers, the femtosecond laser two-in-one processing strategy includes the construction of hydrogel joints using asymmetric two-photon polymerization and the deposition of silver nanoparticles by laser reduction in local areas of joints. Among them, asymmetric photopolymerization technology can produce anisotropy in the cross-linking density of the local region of the hydrogel micro-joint, and finally make the bending deformation controllable in direction and Angle. In situ laser reduction deposition can accurately process silver nanoparticles on hydrogel joints. These silver nanoparticles have a strong photothermal conversion effect, which makes the mode switching of multi-joint micromachines exhibit excellent characteristics of ultra-short response time and ultra-low drive power. 
 
As a typical example, eight micro-joints are integrated into a humanoid micromachine. Spatial light modulation technology is then used to achieve a multi-focus beam in 3D space, which in turn precisely stimulates each micro-joint. The cooperative deformation between multiple joints enables the humanoid micromanipulator to complete multiple reconfigurable deformation modes. Finally, the "dancing microrobot" was realized at the micron scale. As a proof of concept, by designing the distribution and deformation direction of the micro-joints, the double-jointed micro-robotic arm can collect multiple micro-particles in the same and different directions.
 
According to the researchers, the femtosecond laser two-in-one machining strategy can construct deformable micro-joints in various local areas of three-dimensional microstructures, and achieve a variety of reconfigurable deformation modes. In the future, micromanipulators with multiple deformation modes will show broad application prospects in micro-cargo collection, microfluidic manipulation and cell manipulation.
 
Source: Science and Technology Daily
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