Microrobots for Antibiotic-Resistant Skin Colony Eradication.

Self-propelled nano- and micromachines have immense potential as autonomous seek-and-act devices in biomedical applications. In this study, we present microrobots constructed with inherently biocompatible materials and propulsion systems tailored to skin-related applications. Addressing the significant treatment challenge posed by methicillin-resistant (MRSA) skin infections, we demonstrate that photocatalytic titanium dioxide microrobots decorated with silver or platinum can effectively and rapidly eradicate MRSA biofilms grown on skin-mimicking membranes and porcine skin tissues.

Motion-Controlled Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Using Microrobots Designed with a Single Atomic-Level Precision.

The potential of hydrogen as a next-generation fuel has recently attracted a great deal of attention because it is considered a green fuel originating from renewable sources. Material sciences with the tools of nanoarchitectonics are targeting a wide variety of suitable photocatalysts of different materials, morphologies, and dimensionalities. Here, we present the concept of the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) using microrobots: tiny autonomous devices possessing propulsion and photocatalytic abilities.

Nano-/Microrobots for Environmental Remediation in the Eyes of Nanoarchitectonics: Toward Engineering on a Single-Atomic Scale.

Nano-/microrobots have been demonstrated as an efficient solution for environmental remediation. Their strength lies in their propulsion abilities that allow active "on-the-fly" operation, such as pollutant detection, capture, transport, degradation, and disruption. Another advantage is their versatility, which allows the engineering of highly functional solutions for a specific application.

Lateral nanoarchitectonics from nano to life: ongoing challenges in interfacial chemical science.

Lateral nanoarchitectonics is a method of precisely designing functional materials from atoms, molecules, and nanomaterials (so-called nanounits) in two-dimensional (2D) space using knowledge of nanotechnology. Similar strategies can be seen in biological systems; in particular, biological membranes ingeniously arrange and organise functional units within a single layer of units to create powerful systems for photosynthesis or signal transduction and others. When our major lateral nanoarchitectural approaches such as layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly and Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films are compared with biological membranes, one finds that lateral nanoarchitectonics has potential to become a powerful tool for designing advanced functional nanoscale systems; however, it is still rather not well-developed with a great deal of unexplored possibilities.

On-the-Fly Monitoring of the Capture and Removal of Nanoplastics with Nanorobots.

Nanoplastics are considered an emerging organic persistent pollutant with possible severe long-term implications for the environment and human health; therefore, their remediation is of paramount importance. However, detecting and determining the concentration of nanoparticles in water is challenging and time-consuming due to their small size. In this work, we present a universal yet simple method for the detection and quantification of nanoplastics to monitor their removal from water using magnetic nanorobots.

Light-powered swarming phoretic antimony chalcogenide-based microrobots with "on-the-fly" photodegradation abilities.

Microrobots are at the forefront of research for biomedical and environmental applications. Whereas a single microrobot exhibits quite low performance in the large-scale environment, swarms of microrobots are representing a powerful tool in biomedical and environmental applications. Here, we fabricated phoretic SbS-based microrobots that exhibited swarming behavior under light illumination without any addition of chemical fuel.

Hydrogen Bonding Nanoarchitectonics of Organic Pigment-Based Janus Microrobots with Entering Capability into Cancer Cells.

Autonomous microrobots are at the forefront of biomedical research as they are expected to be applied for specific tasks at the intracellular level such as cargo delivery, sensing, molecular manipulation, among others. Here, we report on a preparation of microrobots based on quinacridone and indigo, which are members of the organic hydrogen-bonded pigment family. The microrobots were fabricated by asymmetric platinum deposition on corresponding quinacridone and indigo microparticles that possessed a homogeneous size and shape distribution.

Swarming Magnetically Navigated Indigo-Based Hydrophobic Microrobots for Oil Removal.

Removal of oil is very important for environmental remediation when considering its negative impacts on living organisms and on the quality of water, groundwater, and soil. Here, we report on the application of hydrophobic magnetic hydrogen-bonded organic pigment-based microrobots for oil removal. The microrobots can be wirelessly navigated in a transversal rotating magnetic field, with full control of their trajectory.

Synthesis conditions influencing formation of MAPbBr perovskite nanoparticles prepared by the ligand-assisted precipitation method.

This work reports on an optimized procedure to synthesize methylammonium bromide perovskite nanoparticles. The ligand-assisted precipitation synthetic pathway for preparing nanoparticles is a cost-effective and promising method due to its ease of scalability, affordable equipment requirements and convenient operational temperatures. Nevertheless, there are several parameters that influence the resulting optical properties of the final nanomaterials.

Anti-Stokes photoluminescence study on a methylammonium lead bromide nanoparticle film.

Photon cooling via anti-Stokes photoluminescence (ASPL) is a promising approach to realize all-solid-state cryo-refrigeration by photoexcitation. Photoluminescence quantum yields close to 100% and a strong coupling between phonons and excited states are required to achieve net cooling. We have studied the anti-Stokes photoluminescence of thin films of methylammonium lead bromide nanoparticles.

Microwave-Assisted Preparation of Organo-Lead Halide Perovskite Single Crystals.

The efficiency of organo-lead halide perovskite-based optoelectronic devices is dramatically lower for amorphous materials compared to highly crystalline ones. Therefore, it is challenging to optimize and scale up the production of large-sized single crystals of perovskite materials. Here, we describe a novel and original approach to preparing lead halide perovskite single crystals by applying microwave radiation during the crystallization.

Cyclic Peptide Stabilized Lead Halide Perovskite Nanoparticles.

Combining the unique properties of peptides as versatile tools for nano- and biotechnology with lead halide perovskite nanoparticles can bring exceptional opportunities for the development of optoelectronics, photonics, and bioelectronics. As a first step towards this challenge sub 10 nm methylammonium lead bromide perovskite colloidal nanoparticles have been synthetizes using commercial cyclic peptide Cyclo(RGDFK), containing 5 amino acids, as a surface stabilizer. Perovskite nanoparticles passivated with Cyclo(RGDFK) possess charge transfer from the perovskite core to the peptide shell, resulting in lower photoluminescence quantum yields, which however opens a path for the application where charge transfer is favorable.