Abstract
Micromotors with self-propelling ability demonstrate great values in highly sensitive analysis. Developing novel micromotors to achieve label-free multiplex assay is particularly intriguing in terms of detection efficiency. Herein, structural color micromotors (SCMs) were developed and employed for this purpose. The SCMs were derived from phase separation of droplet templates and exhibited a Janus structure with two distinct sections, including one with structural colors and the other providing catalytic self-propelling functions. Besides, the SCMs were functionalized with ion-responsive aptamers, through which the interaction between the ions and aptamers resulted in the shift of the intrinsic color of the SCMs. It was demonstrated that the SCMs could realize multiplex label-free detection of ions based on their optical coding capacity and responsive behaviors. Moreover, the detection sensitivity was greatly improved benefiting from the autonomous motion of the SCMs which enhanced the ion-aptamer interactions. We anticipate that the SCMs can significantly promote the development of multiplex assay and biomedical fields.
Highlights
Micromotors are small artificial devices that can cause spontaneous motion by converting the fuels or the externally supplied energy into propulsion [1–5]
The Janus structural color particles were made by droplet templates containing silica nanoparticles and graphene oxide (GO) sheets generated from a microfluidic chip [45–52]
The droplet templates evolved into two layers gradually, and the GO sheets with Pt and Fe3O4 NPs were enriched in the upper part
Summary
Micromotors are small artificial devices that can cause spontaneous motion by converting the fuels or the externally supplied energy into propulsion [1–5]. Owing to the considerable potential in carrying out tasks for many fields such as biomedicine and environmental science, they have attracted many interests of researchers. The micromotors in the use of sensing have attracted increasing attention [6–9]. Compared to the traditional sensing strategies, the micromotor-based platform can contact the target analytes more frequently to exhibit higher sensitivity and reduced assay time [10–12]. Most of these strategies are carried out by labeled detection, which relies on a complicated and time-consuming process. The micromotors are hard to assay several analytes simultaneously, which is necessary for many situations
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