Magnetic microswimmers with infrared‐induced shape transformation

Abstract

Soft untethered microswimmers have recently been demonstrated to be capable of transporting and delivering cargos by external control while maintaining biocompatibility and safety. However, such microswimmers still suffer from complex and inconvenient fabrication processes and control methods, which impedes their clinical translation. In this paper, an easy-to-fabricate, magnetic-driven and IR-induced shape transformative microswimmer is presented. This microswimmer can be fabricated in a fast, low-cost and high-throughput manner. Besides, the soft body of the microswimmer can provide an inherent friendly contact with the biological environment, and its components are biocompatible and biodegradable. Being magnetically-drivable allows the microswimmer to provide untethered movement and targeted therapy in the human body, and its IR-induced shape transformability enables penetrable regulation of the movement and function. Furthermore, the shape of the untethered microswimmer can be transformed due to its combination of low melting behaviours and multi-response materials, suggesting that other materials with similar properties can also be adopted in a similar method. The proposed method validates the feasibility to integrate polymers for fabricating magnetic-driven, infrared-responsive and shape transformative microswimmers.