Propulsion of magnetically actuated achiral planar microswimmers in Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 21190
• Main Authors: Chen, Zhi, Wang, Zihan, Quashie, Jr, David, Benhal, Prateek, Ali, Jamel, Kim, Min Jun, Cheang, U Kei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 27.10.2021; Nature Publishing Group UK; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: Kinematics; Locomotion; Methylcellulose; Swimming
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-00153-5

Magnetic achiral planar microswimmers can be massively fabricated at low cost and are envisioned to be useful for in vivo biomedical applications. To understand locomotion in representative in vivo environments, we investigated the swimming performance of achiral planar microswimmers in methylcellulose solutions. We observed that these microswimmers displayed very similar swimming characteristics in methylcellulose solutions as in water. Furthermore, this study indicated that the range of precession angles increased as the concentration of MC solution increased. Last, it was demonstrated that achiral planar microswimmers with similar precession angles exhibited nearly the same dimensionless speeds in different concentrations of the methylcellulose solutions. Upon understanding swimmer kinematics, more effective control over the achiral planar microswimmers can be achieved to perform multiple biomedical tasks in in vivo environments.