Solvent response of polymers for micromachine manipulationElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental details for preparation of photoresist and photopolymers (PBMA), fabrication of microstructures. A video about the movement of the slipping-block microdevice. See DOI: 10.1039/c0cp02006k

A novel solvent responsive polymer micromachine has been successfully fabricated by two-photon photopolymerization (TPP) of methacrylate-based photoresists. The moving part of the micromachine could be easily driven by interfacial solvent polarity induced swelling and shrinking of the photopolymer networks. Furthermore, the driving performance of the micromachine could be precisely modulated by varying the laser scanning step length during fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]