Membrane template synthesis of microtube engines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9982356-B2
Application number	US-201615161615-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 23, 2016
Priority date	Jun 2, 2011
Publication date	May 29, 2018
Grant date	May 29, 2018

Abstract

Methods, structures, devices and systems are disclosed for fabrication of microtube engines using membrane template electrodeposition. Such nanomotors operate based on bubble-induced propulsion in biological fluids and salt-rich environments. In one aspect, fabricating microengines includes depositing a polymer layer on a membrane template, depositing a conductive metal layer on the polymer layer, and dissolving the membrane template to release the multilayer microtubes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A microstructure, comprising:
a microtube having a large opening and a short opening at opposite ends of the microtube and a tube body connecting the large opening and the short opening and a spatially reducing size along a longitudinal direction from the large opening to the small opening;
the microtube further including a layered wall structure defining the tube body, the layered wall structure having at least two layers, a first layer that is an external layer formed of a material capable of being functionalized, and a second layer that is an inner layer.

2. The microstructure of claim 1 , wherein the first layer comprises a polymer material.

3. The microstructure of claim 2 , wherein the polymer material comprises polyaniline (PANI) or polypyrrole (PPy) or poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT).

4. The microstructure of claim 1 , wherein the second layer comprises a material that is reactive with a fuel or is a catalyst of a fuel.

5. The microstructure of claim 4 , wherein the material that is reactive with a fuel or is a catalyst of a fuel comprises a conductive metal.

6. The microstructure of claim 4 , wherein the material that is a catalyst of a fuel comprises platinum.

7. The microstructure of claim 1 , wherein the microstructure is producible using a template comprising one or more holes of a geometry corresponding to that of the tube body, and wherein the template comprises cyclopore polycarbonated membrane.

8. The microstructure of claim 7 , wherein the cyclopore polycarbonated membrane comprises an asymmetrical, conically-shaped pore structure.

9. The microstructure of claim 8 , wherein the asymmetrical conically-shaped pore structure comprises different cone angles.

10. The microstructure of claim 1 , wherein the microtube comprises a self-propulsion microtube.

11. The microstructure of claim 1 , wherein the microtube comprises a fuel based microtube.

12. The microstructure of claim 11 , wherein the fuel based microtube uses a 0.2%-30% concentration hydrogen peroxide fuel.

Assignees

• Univ California

Inventors

• Wang Joseph
• Gao Wei
• Sattayasamitsathit Sirilak

Classifications

• B01J35/0006

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B82Y15/00

  Nanotechnology for interacting, sensing or actuating, e.g. quantum dots as markers in protein assays or molecular motors · CPC title

• F03H99/00

  Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass · CPC title

• B01J23/8906

  Iron and noble metals · CPC title

• B01J20/22

  comprising organic material · CPC title