Ge Lingling, Cheng Jingru, Sun Xiaohuan, Liu Junliang, Wei Duo, Guo Rong
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020 Mar 25;12(12):14588-14598. doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c00368. Epub 2020 Mar 16.
In living systems, highly efficient biological micromotors are fascinating and crucial to the maintenance and regulation of normal functions. Inspired by this, solid colloid motors with controlled movements were recently developed for diverse applications. However, to meet the requirements of more elaborate functionalities, the development of droplet-based micromotors, which feature with appealing advantages such as deformability, encapsulation capability, and biocompatibility, is demanding. Herein, responsive Janus droplets with intrinsic magnetic anisotropy were fabricated, taking advantage of the traditional one-step vortex mixing that guarantees large-scale production. Furthermore, the size range of the droplets can be easily extended continuously from hundreds of micrometers down to tens of nanometers. What is more appealing, directed in situ group motions that include alignment, rotation, and transfer of the Janus droplets prepared were successfully realized and precisely controlled by using an external magnetic field. These collective motions induced excellent performances in pollutant adsorption and separation, switchable conductivities, and the size grading. Such scalable, simple, and controllable strategy can expand the application of Janus emulsions to complicated fields of microreactors, microsensors, and environmental regulation.
在生命系统中，高效的生物微马达引人入胜，对维持和调节正常功能至关重要。受此启发，最近开发了具有可控运动的固体胶体马达用于各种应用。然而，为了满足更精细功能的要求，具有诸如可变形性、封装能力和生物相容性等吸引人优点的基于液滴的微马达的开发迫在眉睫。在此，利用保证大规模生产的传统一步涡旋混合法制备了具有固有磁各向异性的响应性Janus液滴。此外，液滴的尺寸范围可以很容易地从数百微米连续扩展到数十纳米。更吸引人的是，通过使用外部磁场成功实现并精确控制了所制备的Janus液滴的定向原位群体运动，包括排列、旋转和转移。这些集体运动在污染物吸附和分离、可切换电导率以及尺寸分级方面表现出优异的性能。这种可扩展、简单且可控的策略可以将Janus乳液的应用扩展到微反应器、微传感器和环境调节等复杂领域。
