Journal
ACS NANO
Volume 10, Issue 9, Pages 8751-8759Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.6b04358
Keywords
micro/nanomotors; Janus particles; phoretic motion; self-propulsion; mesoporous silica; micromachines
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Funding
- European Research Council (ERC) [311529] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
- ICREA Funding Source: Custom
- European Research Council [311529] Funding Source: Medline
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Self-motile Janus colloids are important for enabling a wide variety of microtechnology applications as well as for improving our understanding of the mechanisms of motion of artificial micro- and nanoswimmers. We present here micro/nanomotors which possess a reversed Janus structure of an internal catalytic chemical engine. The catalytic material (here platinum (Pt)) is embedded within the interior of the mesoporous silica (mSiO(2))-based hollow particles and triggers the decomposition of H2O2 when suspended in an aqueous peroxide (H2O2) solution. The pores/gaps at the noncatalytic (Pt) hemisphere allow the exchange of chemical species in solution between the exterior and the interior of the particle. By varying the diameter of the particles, we observed size-dependent motile behavior in the form of enhanced diffusion for 500 nm particles, and self-phoretic motion, toward the nonmetallic part, for 1.5 and 3 mu m ones. The direction of motion was rationalized, by a theoretical model based on self-phoresis. For the 3 mu m particles, a change in the morphology of the porous part is observed, which is accompanied by a change in the mechanism of propulsion via bubble nucleation and ejection as well as a change in the direction of motion.
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