MOFBOTS—Metal–Organic Framework-Based Biomedical Magnetic Microrobots

In the field of small-scale robotics there is a growing interest on providing locomotion to soft materials, as these materials mimic more closely the physicochemical properties of biological tissues. Hydrogels, for example, can efficiently lead to biocompatible and biodegradable advanced small-scale robots that can find application in the biomedical field, e.g. in diagnostics and/or targeted drug delivery. However, even though hydrogels are an excellent platform to accomplish a new generation of functional small-scale robots, other materials that could allow highly integrated robotic platforms are yet highly demanded. In this context, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of soft material with high porosity and tunable physicochemical properties, could be a key component for developing future highly integrated small-scale robotic platforms. While some initial efforts have been made to produce mobile MOF-based small-scale machines, the locomotion features of most of these systems are not at the level of sophistication of current state-of-the-art micro- and nanoswimmers.<br/><br/>In this presentation, I will present our recent contributions to the field where three-dimensional MOF-based soft micromachines have been designed, fabricated and characterized. I will show how these structures can swim and follow complex trajectories by means of weak rotating magnetic fields. The proposed systems can achieve, for example, single cell targeting in a cell culture media and/or a controlled delivery of cargo payloads inside a complex microfluidic channel network. We believe that this new approach towards the fabrication of highly integrated multifunctional systems will undoubtedly open new avenues in soft robotics beyond current applications.