Magnetic micromachines prepared by ferrite plating technique.

By the sterolithography technique and the ferrite plating, we fabricated three types of magnetic micromachines which coated Fe[SUB3]O[SUB4], Co[SUB0.39]Fe[SUB2.61]O[SUB4], and Co[SUB0.45]Fe[SUB2.55]O[SUB4], respectively. The stereolithography technique enables one to form the spiral-shape resinous templates and the ferrite plating enables one to coat the ferrites uniformly onto these templates from an aqueous solution. The total machine weight is light because a resin of the template body is almost the same density as water. We verified that the machines swim freely and wirelessly in water by applying a rotational magnetic field. As these machines coated with ferrites have the biocompatibility, there is the possibility of medical microrobots which swim in the human body for medical operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]