Bacterial ratchet motors
Bacterial ratchet motors
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.0910426107
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发表时间：
2010-05-25
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Di Fabrizio, E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Di Leonardo, R.;Angelani, L.;Di Fabrizio, E.
自我推进的细菌是纳米技术的梦想。这些单细胞生物不仅能够生存和繁殖，而且它们可以非常有效地游泳，感知环境，寻找食物，所有这些都被包装在几微米的身体中。在这种完美的机器可以人工组装之前，研究人员开始探索利用细菌作为微型设备推进单元的新方法。提出的策略需要仔细地将细菌细胞排列和结合在合成表面上，以便使它们协同工作。在这里，我们表明，不对称的环境可以产生一个自发的和单向旋转的纳米制造的对象沉浸在一个活跃的细菌浴。推进机制是由运动的大肠杆菌细胞沿沿着转子边界的自组装提供的。我们的研究结果突出了技术上的影响，活性物质的能力，以克服热力学第二定律对平衡被动流体的限制。
Self-propelling bacteria are a nanotechnology dream. These unicellular organisms are not just capable of living and reproducing, but they can swim very efficiently, sense the environment, and look for food, all packaged in a body measuring a few microns. Before such perfect machines can be artificially assembled, researchers are beginning to explore new ways to harness bacteria as propelling units for microdevices. Proposed strategies require the careful task of aligning and binding bacterial cells on synthetic surfaces in order to have them work cooperatively. Here we show that asymmetric environments can produce a spontaneous and unidirectional rotation of nanofabricated objects immersed in an active bacterial bath. The propulsion mechanism is provided by the self-assembly of motile Escherichia coli cells along the rotor boundaries. Our results highlight the technological implications of active matter's ability to overcome the restrictions imposed by the second law of thermodynamics on equilibrium passive fluids.