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MAE student leads study to pave way for 3D printing
Magnetic soft millirobots (MSMRs) are small-scale actuators having great potential to enable unprecedented in vitro diagnostics by manipulating small-scale droplets very effectively.
Although it is highly desirable to use vat photopolymerization (VP) methods to 3D-print MSMRs with complex geometries, the embedded magnetic fillers of such existing printed robots generally suffer from poor uniformity and low particle loading. Here we present a circulating vat photopolymerization (CVP) platform that can 3D-print MSMRs with complex geometries, high uniformity, high particle loading and strong magnetic response. Specifically, we have 3D-printed various highly functional MSMRs, which can effectively manipulate small-scale droplets in 3D to enable various in vitro diagnostics.
We envision that this study paves the way for 3D-printing a new generation of highly functional MSMRs, which have great potential to transform medicine and biology. This study is led by Zhou Aiwu, Professor Lum Guo Zhan from MAE, Professor Zhang Yi from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and other collaborators from SPMS and Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
The results of this work have been published by the prestigious Advanced Materials scientific journal:
