https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2016-60064-x
Review
Tubular microjets: Fabrication, factors affecting the motion and mechanism of propulsion
1 Max-Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Heisenbergstr. 3, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
2 Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Baldiri Reixac 10-12, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
3 Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats (ICREA), Psg. Lluis Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
a e-mail: ssanchez@ibecbarcelona.eu; sanchez@is.mpg.de
Received: 25 February 2016
Revised: 21 April 2016
Published online: 10 November 2016
Artificial micro- and nano-swimmers are interesting systems for both fundamental understandings of swimming at low Reynolds numbers and for their promising applications in many fields, such as environmental and biomedical fields. Different architectures of self-propelled systems present various propulsion mechanisms. Among them, tubular microjets are widely used for different applications. Here, we briefly describe the fabrication of microjets by rolling up thin film and electrodeposition techniques and the principles behind these processes. Different parameters affecting the motion of microjets and existing theoretical models about microjet propulsion are discussed.
© The Author(s) 2016
Open Access This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
