Catalysis for Powering Nanomotors and their Applications

From the inspiring talk from Feynman more than 50 years ago about nanotechnology to the 2016 Nobel Prize of Chemistry for molecular machines, scientists have engineered tiny machines that convert chemistry into motion at the nanoscale. This challenge has been achieved thanks to catalytic reactions happening locally on the architecture of the machine providing self-propulsion in fluids.

Self-propelled micro- and nano-machines are opening many avenues in fields such as catalysis in confined spaces, micro-machining, robotics, biosensing, nanomedicine, microfluidics, and environmental field.

Here, I will present our recent developments in the field of catalytic micro- and nanomachines from fundamental studies to some particular applications. Towards nanomedicine, where the active and direct transport of drugs to specific locations is desired, biocompatibility of the system must be ensured. This is enabled by engineering hybrid micro-nano-bots, which are powered either by enzymatic catalytic reactions, or by motile cells such as bacteria.  We fabricate micro-nanomachines in the form of porous nano-particles, micro-capsules, micro-tubes up to 3D Bioprinted structures.