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Spatial Control over Catalyst Positioning for Increased Micromotor Efficiency

Motion is influenced by many different aspects of a micromotor’s design, such as shape, roughness and the type of materials used. When designing a motor, asymmetry is the main requirement to take into account, either in shape or in catalyst distribution. It influences both speed and directionality s...

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Autores principales: Keller, Shauni, Teora, Serena P., Keskin, Arif, Daris, Luuk J. C., Samuels, Norman A. P. E., Boujemaa, Moussa, Wilson, Daniela A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9957166/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36826334
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/gels9020164
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author Keller, Shauni
Teora, Serena P.
Keskin, Arif
Daris, Luuk J. C.
Samuels, Norman A. P. E.
Boujemaa, Moussa
Wilson, Daniela A.
author_facet Keller, Shauni
Teora, Serena P.
Keskin, Arif
Daris, Luuk J. C.
Samuels, Norman A. P. E.
Boujemaa, Moussa
Wilson, Daniela A.
author_sort Keller, Shauni
collection PubMed
description Motion is influenced by many different aspects of a micromotor’s design, such as shape, roughness and the type of materials used. When designing a motor, asymmetry is the main requirement to take into account, either in shape or in catalyst distribution. It influences both speed and directionality since it dictates the location of propulsion force. Here, we combine asymmetry in shape and asymmetry in catalyst distribution to study the motion of soft micromotors. A microfluidic method is utilized to generate aqueous double emulsions, which upon UV-exposure form asymmetric microgels. Taking advantage of the flexibility of this method, we fabricated micromotors with homogeneous catalyst distribution throughout the microbead and micromotors with different degrees of catalyst localization within the active site. Spatial control over catalyst positioning is advantageous since less enzyme is needed for the same propulsion speed as the homogeneous system and it provides further confinement and compartmentalization of the catalyst. This proof-of-concept of our new design will make the use of enzymes as driving forces for motors more accessible, as well as providing a new route for compartmentalizing enzymes at interfaces without the need for catalyst-specific functionalization.
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spelling pubmed-99571662023-02-25 Spatial Control over Catalyst Positioning for Increased Micromotor Efficiency Keller, Shauni Teora, Serena P. Keskin, Arif Daris, Luuk J. C. Samuels, Norman A. P. E. Boujemaa, Moussa Wilson, Daniela A. Gels Article Motion is influenced by many different aspects of a micromotor’s design, such as shape, roughness and the type of materials used. When designing a motor, asymmetry is the main requirement to take into account, either in shape or in catalyst distribution. It influences both speed and directionality since it dictates the location of propulsion force. Here, we combine asymmetry in shape and asymmetry in catalyst distribution to study the motion of soft micromotors. A microfluidic method is utilized to generate aqueous double emulsions, which upon UV-exposure form asymmetric microgels. Taking advantage of the flexibility of this method, we fabricated micromotors with homogeneous catalyst distribution throughout the microbead and micromotors with different degrees of catalyst localization within the active site. Spatial control over catalyst positioning is advantageous since less enzyme is needed for the same propulsion speed as the homogeneous system and it provides further confinement and compartmentalization of the catalyst. This proof-of-concept of our new design will make the use of enzymes as driving forces for motors more accessible, as well as providing a new route for compartmentalizing enzymes at interfaces without the need for catalyst-specific functionalization. MDPI 2023-02-18 /pmc/articles/PMC9957166/ /pubmed/36826334 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/gels9020164 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Keller, Shauni
Teora, Serena P.
Keskin, Arif
Daris, Luuk J. C.
Samuels, Norman A. P. E.
Boujemaa, Moussa
Wilson, Daniela A.
Spatial Control over Catalyst Positioning for Increased Micromotor Efficiency
title Spatial Control over Catalyst Positioning for Increased Micromotor Efficiency
title_full Spatial Control over Catalyst Positioning for Increased Micromotor Efficiency
title_fullStr Spatial Control over Catalyst Positioning for Increased Micromotor Efficiency
title_full_unstemmed Spatial Control over Catalyst Positioning for Increased Micromotor Efficiency
title_short Spatial Control over Catalyst Positioning for Increased Micromotor Efficiency
title_sort spatial control over catalyst positioning for increased micromotor efficiency
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9957166/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36826334
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/gels9020164
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