Engineering news
Scientists have built self-propelled nanomotors that can seek out and repair tiny scratches to electronic systems.
Inspired by the human body’s own immune system, it is hoped it could one day lead to flexible batteries, electrodes, solar cells and other gadgets that heal themselves.
The researchers from the University of California at San Diego, will present their work at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
"Electronic circuits are very sophisticated these days," said Jinxing Li, PhD student at UC San Diego. "But a crack, even an extremely small one, can interrupt the flow of current and eventually lead to the failure of a device. Traditional electronics can be fixed with soldering, but repairing advanced electronics on a nanoscale requires innovation."
Li said that the research is key as replacing whole devices or even parts can be tricky or expensive, particularly if they're integrated in clothes or located in remote places. Creating devices that can fix themselves would be ideal, according to Joseph Wang, whose lab at UC San Diego develops nanoscale machines. To work toward this goal, his lab and a research team from the University of Pittsburgh looked to nature for ideas.
"If you cut your finger, for example, platelets will automatically localize at the wound location and help start the healing process," Li said. "So what we wanted to do is create and use extremely small robots to perform the same function, except in an electronic system."
To accomplish this, Wang's team collaborated with the group of Anna Balazs, PhD, at the University of Pittsburgh. They designed and built nanoparticles out of gold and platinum that are powered by hydrogen peroxide. The platinum spurs the fuel to break down into water and oxygen, which propels the particles. Testing showed that the nanomotors zoomed over the surface of a broken electronic circuit connected to a light-emitting diode, or LED. When they approached the scratch, they got lodged in it and bridged the gap between the two sides. Because the particles are made of conductive metals, they allowed current to flow again, and the LED lit up.
Li said the nanomotors would be ideal for hard-to-repair electronic components such as the conductive layer of solar cells, which are subject to harsh environmental conditions and prone to scratching. They could also be used to heal flexible sensors and batteries, which the Wang lab is also developing.
Additionally, the same concept with different materials and fuels could be used in medical applications for delivering drugs to specific locations. The lab is also developing new nanomotors that could potentially be deployed in the body to treat different diseases, such as stomach infections.
A press conference on this topic will be held Tuesday, 15 March, at 1pm Pacific time in the San Diego Convention Center. Watch the conference live on YouTube http://bit.ly/ACSliveSanDiego.