![]() ![]() The hard and soft components take alternating positions in the chain, mimicking the spine structure, that is, the MicroSpine. Being also the hard component, these MOF particles can combine with soft liquid droplets to form linear chains. Yet, the difficulty is how to guide the particles to assemble to the desired soft-hard structure.īy using the spine as a basis for design, the team has invented new particles derived from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), an emerging material that can assemble with high directionality and specificity. As a bottom-up method, colloidal assembly is advantageous for making microscale structures because it allows for precise control over the creation of the desired structures from various building blocks, possessing a higher yield. When properly engineered, the particles can interact with one another, spontaneously assembling into ordered superstructures. Colloids are tiny particles 1/100 the size of human hair and can be made from various materials. To tackle the challenge, Dr Wang and his team took a different approach, called colloidal assembly. For example, low yield can occur because small-scale manufacturing processes are more complex and require greater precision, which can increase the risk of defects and errors in the final product. Traditional manufacturing methods, such as lithography, face several limitations when attempting to create small-scale components using top-down strategies. ![]() This is because it becomes increasingly challenging to integrate and manipulate mechanically distinct components at smaller scale. They have also stimulated the creation of artificial materials and devices, such as actuators and robots, which change shape, move, or actuate according to external cues.Īlthough soft-hard structures are easy to fabricate at the macroscale (millimetre and above), they are much harder to realise at the microscale (micrometre and below). These structures exist in different lengths, from micrometres to centimetres, and account for the characteristic mechanical functions of biological systems. Many biological organisms, ranging from mammals to arthropods and microorganisms, contain structures of synergistically integrated soft and hard components. This breakthrough, published in the top scientific journal Science Advances, was achieved through colloidal assembly, a simple process in which nano- and microparticles spontaneously organise into ordered spatial patterns. With the goal of advancing biomimetic microscale materials, the research team led by Dr Yufeng WANG from the Department of Chemistry of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed a new method to create microscale superstructures, called MicroSpine, that possess both soft and hard materials which mimic the spine structure and can act as microactuators with shape-transforming properties. ![]()
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