Water-Immiscible Coacervate as a Liquid Magnetic Robot for Intravascular Navigation.

Journal: Journal of the American Chemical Society
Published Date: Feb 15, 2023

Abstract

Developing magnetic ultrasoft robots to navigate through extraordinarily narrow and confined spaces like capillaries in vivo requires synthesizing materials with excessive deformability, responsive actuation, and rapid adaptability, which are difficult to achieve with the current soft polymeric materials, such as elastomers and hydrogels. We report a magnetically actuatable and water-immiscible (MAWI) coacervate based on the assembled magnetic core-shell nanoparticles to function as a liquid robot. The degradable and biocompatible millimeter-sized MAWI coacervate liquid robot can remain stable under changing pH and salt concentrations, release loaded cargoes on demand, squeeze through an artificial capillary network within seconds, and realize intravascular targeting in vivo guided by an external magnetic field. We believe the proposed "coacervate-based liquid robot" can implement demanding tasks beyond the capability of conventional elastomer or hydrogel-based soft robots in the field of biomedicine and represents a distinct design strategy for high-performance ultrasoft robots.

Authors

  • Pengchao Zhao
    School of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, Guangzhou International Campus, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 511442, P. R. China.
  • Fuyang Qu
    1Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China.
  • Hao Fu
    Pharmaceutical Informatics Institute, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P. R. China.
  • Jianyang Zhao
    Manufacturing Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Clayton Victoria Australia.
  • Jiaxin Guo
    Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, P. R. China.
  • Jiankun Xu
    Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, P. R. China.
  • Yi-Ping Ho
    1Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China.
  • Michael K Chan
    School of Life Sciences and Center of Novel Biomaterials, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, P. R. China.
  • Liming Bian
    School of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, Guangzhou International Campus, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 511442, P. R. China.

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