Magnetic polymer composite artificial bacterial flagella

Abstract

Artificial bacterial flagella (ABFs) are magnetically actuated swimming microrobots inspired by Escherichia coli bacteria, which use a helical tail for propulsion. The ABFs presented are fabricated from a magnetic polymer composite (MPC) containing iron-oxide nanoparticles embedded in an SU-8 polymer that is shaped into a helix by direct laser writing. The paper discusses the swim performance of MPC ABFs fabricated with varying helicity angles. The locomotion model presented contains the fluidic drag of the microrobot, which is calculated based on the resistive force theory. The robot's magnetization is approximated by an analytical model for a soft-magnetic ellipsoid. The helicity angle influences the fluidic and magnetic properties of the robot, and it is shown that weakly magnetized robots prefer a small helicity angle to achieve corkscrew-type motion.