Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw, Poland.
Laboratory for Artificial Biology, Centre for Integrative Biology (CIBIO), University of Trento, Polo Scientifico e Tecnologico Fabio Ferrari, Polo B, Via Sommarive 9, 38123 Povo, TN, Italy.
Molecules. 2021 May 23;26(11):3116. doi: 10.3390/molecules26113116.
We describe a novel plastic material composed of camphene, camphor, and polypropylene that seems perfectly suited for studies on self-propelled objects on the water surface. Self-motion is one of the attributes of life, and chemically propelled objects show numerous similarities with animated motion. One of important questions is the relationship between the object shape and its motility. In our previous paper, {R. Löffler et al. PCCP, 2019, , 24852-24856}, we presented a novel hybrid material, obtained from the solution of camphor in camphene, that allowed making objects of various shapes. This hybrid material has wax-like mechanical properties, but it has a very high tackiness. Here, we report that a small amount of polypropylene removed this undesirable feature. We investigated the properties of camphor-camphene-polypropylene plastic by performing the statistical analysis of a pill trajectory inside a Petri dish and compared them with those of camphor-camphene wax. The plastic showed the stable character of motion for over an hour-long experiment. The surface activity of objects made of plastic did not significantly depend on the weight ratios of the compounds. Such a significant increase in usefulness came from the polypropylene, which controlled the dissipation of camphor and camphene molecules.
我们描述了一种由莰烯、樟脑和聚丙烯组成的新型塑料材料，它似乎非常适合研究水面上的自推进物体。自运动是生命的属性之一，化学推进的物体与动画运动表现出许多相似之处。一个重要的问题是物体形状与其运动性之间的关系。在我们之前的论文中，{R. Löffler 等人。PCCP，2019 年，24852-24856}，我们提出了一种新型的混合材料，由樟脑在莰烯中的溶液制成，允许制作各种形状的物体。这种混合材料具有蜡状的机械性能，但粘性很高。在这里，我们报告说少量的聚丙烯去除了这个不理想的特性。我们通过在培养皿中进行丸剂轨迹的统计分析来研究樟脑-莰烯-聚丙烯塑料的性质，并将其与樟脑-莰烯蜡的性质进行比较。该塑料在长达一个多小时的实验中表现出稳定的运动特性。由塑料制成的物体的表面活性并不显著取决于化合物的重量比。这种用途的显著增加来自于聚丙烯，它控制了樟脑和莰烯分子的耗散。
