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Soft robots offer a great application potential in the field of military, medical, and industry. In this study, a rolling gait was adopted to the design of the soft robot so as to improve the locomotion velocity of the soft robot actuated by the magnetic field. The soft robot was fabricated as a square frame structure (6 × 6 × 0.6 mm) to achieve grasping function. The experimental results indicated that the designed soft robot could roll on a slope with a maximum inclination around 30° under the given conditions. The velocity of the soft robot during the rolling process would decrease with the increase of the inclination. Meanwhile, the soft robot could carry objects 3.75 times its own weight when it rolled on a level pavement. Further analysis and experiments suggested that the rolling locomotion of the soft robot relied on the magnetic torque and the friction force. The locomotion velocity of the soft robot was related to the perimeter of the contour composed of the soft robot and the object being grasped. Moreover, a modular assembly strategy was proposed to improve the locomotion and grasping performance of the soft robot. The findings of this work will help to promote the application of untethered soft robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrolytic cleavage of pUC19 DNA as promoted by the trivalent cerium complex (CeL) of diaza-crown ether ligand L (1,4,10,13-tetraoxa-7,16-diazacyclooctadecane) was examined in detail. The interaction of CeL with calf thymus DNA was investigated by UV-Vis spectroscopy. Furthermore, studies on the effects of pH, reaction time, and the concentration of CeL on cleavage of pUC19 DNA were carried out by gel electrophoresis. The results indicate that CeL can bind to DNA electrostatically with a binding constant of 2.18×104 M-1; CeL can promote the cleavage of plasmid pUC19 DNA from supercoiled to the nicked form under the appropriate conditions, and the optimal pH value is 7.54. The lack of effect of radical scavengers indicates that the cleavage involves hydrolytic cleavage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reported a highly active magnetic MgFe2O4 nanorods catalyst by annealing Mg(OH)2 deposited α-FeOOH nanorods. The catalyst was fully characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM), and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM), and the results showed that the magnetic MgFe2O4 nanorods were a diameter of 50 nm. The as-prepared MgFe2O4 nanorods were used to catalyze Fenton oxidation of Congo red (CR) solution, and the degradation rate of CR reached 95% after 2 h. The catalytic activity remained high after five cycles. The magnetic MgFe2O4 nanorods could be easily separated from organic solvent. The effects of parameters such as temperature, dosage of catalyst, and H2O2 were also analyzed. This opens new perspectives for the synthesis of one-dimensional magnetic catalyst based on a template method and effective treatment of aqueous hazardous dye.