Journal
CHEMICAL SCIENCE
Volume 3, Issue 8, Pages 2526-2529Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c2sc20355c
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (TEKES)
- UPM-Kymmene
- Nokia
- Ahlstrom
- Ecopulp
- Glykos
- Elastopoli
- Sinebrychoff
- Kareline
- Dynea
- Teknos within the NASEVA project
- Academy of Finland
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We show the vapour-driven Marangoni effect as a new paradigm for the continuous self-propulsion of floating soft machines by transduction of chemical energy to motility, featuring a prolonged locomotion at steady velocity with a small amount of on-board fuel. The propulsion is induced by modification of the liquid surface using organic vapour transported through a nanocellulose aerogel membrane. The steady velocity is achieved through a continuous supply of fuel vapour that lowers the surface tension of the liquid, combined with the spontaneous recovery of the surface tension after the floating machine has passed. The membranes are gas permeable from their open-porous nanofibrillar structure and float on water and oils due to their superhydrophobic and superoleophobic nature. The velocity is tunable by selecting solvents with different vapour pressure.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available