Efficient Propulsion and Hovering of Bubble-Driven Hollow Micromotors underneath an Air-Liquid Interface.

Bubble-driven micromotors have attracted substantial interest due to their remarkable self-motile and cargo-delivering abilities in biomedical or environmental applications. Here, we developed a hollow micromotor that experiences fast self-propulsion underneath an air-liquid interface by periodic bubble growth and collapse. The collapsing of a single microbubble induces a ∼1 m·s impulsive jetting flow that instantaneously pushes the micromotor forward. Unlike previously reported micromotors propelled by the recoiling of bubbles, cavitation-induced jetting further utilizes the energy stored in the bubble to propel the micromotor and thus enhances the energy conversion efficiency by 3 orders of magnitude. Four different modes of propulsion are, for the first time, identified by quantifying the dependence of propulsion strength on microbubble size. Meanwhile, the vertical component of the jetting flow counteracts the buoyancy of the micromotor-bubble dimer and facilitates counterintuitive hovering underneath the air-liquid interface. This work not only enriches the understanding of the propulsion mechanism of bubble-driven micromotors but also gives insight into the physical aspects of cavitation bubble dynamics near the air-liquid interface on the microscale.