Journal
ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Volume 61, Issue 34, Pages -Publisher
WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202205298
Keywords
CO2 Fixation; Microswimmers; O-2 Evolution; Photosynthesis; Propulsion
Categories
Funding
- European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union [74125]
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The precise structural tailoring of plant leaves allows for a spatially predefined and confined release of oxygen gas, which drives motion of objects.
Living systems that can spontaneously exhibit directional motion belong to diverse classes such as bacteria, sperm and plankton. They have fascinated scientists in recent years to design completely artificial or biohybrid mobile objects. Natural ingredients, like parts of plants, have been used to elaborate miniaturized dynamic objects, which can move when they are combined with other, non-natural, building blocks. Herein, we report that the precise structural tailoring of natural plant leaves allows generating a spatially predefined and confined release of oxygen gas, due to the conversion of carbon dioxide. This constitutes the driving force for generating motion, which is solely due to the respiration of leaves by photosynthesis. The rate of gas evolution can be fine-tuned by changing the light intensity and the leaf size, allowing ultimately to control the motility of objects with dimensions ranging from the millimeter to the micrometer scale.
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