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Magnetic propulsion of robotic sperms at low-Reynolds number

2016

Article

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We investigate the microswimming behaviour of robotic sperms in viscous fluids. These robotic sperms are fabricated from polystyrene dissolved in dimethyl formamide and iron-oxide nanoparticles. This composition allows the nanoparticles to be concentrated within the bead of the robotic sperm and provide magnetic dipole, whereas the flexibility of the ultra-thin tail enables flagellated locomotion using magnetic fields in millitesla range. We show that these robotic sperms have similar morphology and swimming behaviour to those of sperm cells. Moreover, we show experimentally that our robotic sperms swim controllably at an average speed of approximately one body length per second (around 125 μm s−1), and they are relatively faster than the microswimmers that depend on planar wave propulsion in low-Reynolds number fluids.

Author(s): Khalil, Islam SM and Fatih Tabak, Ahmet and Klingner, Anke and Sitti, Metin
Journal: Applied Physics Letters
Volume: 109
Number (issue): 3
Pages: 033701
Year: 2016

Department(s): Physical Intelligence
Bibtex Type: Article (article)
Paper Type: Journal

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4958737

BibTex

@article{khalil2016magnetic,
  title = {Magnetic propulsion of robotic sperms at low-Reynolds number},
  author = {Khalil, Islam SM and Fatih Tabak, Ahmet and Klingner, Anke and Sitti, Metin},
  journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
  volume = {109},
  number = {3},
  pages = {033701},
  year = {2016},
  doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4958737}
}