Self-steerable propulsion of disk-like micro-craft with dual off-center nanoengines

• Main Authors: Hu, Liangxing, Tao, Kai, Lim, Yu Dian, Miao, Jianmin, Kim, Young Jin
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Mechanical engineering; Self-steerable Propulsion; Disk-like Micro-craft
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/142848
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper reports a novel disk-like micro-craft with dual off-center nozzle nanoengines, consisting of three different metals: gold, nickel, and platinum. A bubble propulsion mechanism originating from momentum change induced by the detachment of oxygen bubbles is proposed to elaborate the self-steerable propulsion of the disk-like gold-nickel-platinum micro-craft. The as-proposed micro-craft is fabricated by a layer-by-layer deposition method based on the micro-electro-mechanical systems technology. Herein, the self-steerable propulsion of the fabricated micro-craft dispersed in deionized water with different hydrogen peroxide concentrations is characterized. As a consequence, the speed of the micro-craft is increased with the increment of hydrogen peroxide concentration. In addition, the micro-craft can always move forward linearly.