1. Degradable Polymer-Fueled Artificial Colloidal Motors.
- Author
-
Liu S, Cao D, Han X, Hou A, Wang S, and Yan X
- Abstract
Chemically powered colloidal motors are self-propelled tiny machines capable of converting chemical energy into mechanical work or kinetic energy. A wide variety of organic or inorganic substrates are selectively utilized as consumable fuels that would allow the creation of a gradient of chemical concentration via catalytic reactions for driving controllable transport in various complex liquid environments, unlocking the potential of chemically powered colloidal motors in a large range of applications. Recently, combinations of synthetic chemistry and nanotechnology have been exploited to design and construct degradable polymer-fueled artificial colloidal motors whose chemically powered propulsion relies on a rapid degradation of stimuli-responsive polymers with labile units in the nanostructured smart colloidal systems under the activation of various physical or chemical stimuli. This review highlights the most recent advances in artificial colloidal motors powered by degradable polymer fuels. It explores the general fabrication approaches to degradable polymer-fueled colloidal motors with asymmetric morphologies and the powering mechanisms of physical or chemical stimuli-responsive polymer degradation toward the self-propelled motion in liquid media and biological microenvironments. The distinct application performance of degradable polymer-fueled colloidal motors developed so far is reviewed. A future perspective on the development of degradable polymer-fueled colloidal motors is also proposed., (© 2025 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)
- Published
- 2025
- Full Text
- View/download PDF