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Cilia metasurfaces for electronically programmable microfluidic manipulation

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

W. Wang
Q. Liu
I. Tanasijevic
M.F. Reynolds
A.J. Cortese
M.Z. Miskin
M.C. Cao
D.A. Muller
A.C. Molnar
E. Lauga
P.L. McEuen
Itai Cohen

Abstract

Cilial pumping is a powerful strategy used by biological organisms to control and manipulate fluids at the microscale. However, despite numerous recent advances in optically, magnetically and electrically driven actuation, development of an engineered cilial platform with the potential for applications has remained difficult to realize1–6. Here we report on active metasurfaces of electronically actuated artificial cilia that can create arbitrary flow patterns in liquids near a surface. We first create voltage-actuated cilia that generate non-reciprocal motions to drive surface flows at tens of microns per second at actuation voltages of 1 volt. We then show that a cilia unit cell can locally create a range of elemental flow geometries. By combining these unit cells, we create an active cilia metasurface that can generate and switch between any desired surface flow pattern. Finally, we integrate the cilia with a light-powered complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) clock circuit to demonstrate wireless operation. As a proof of concept, we use this circuit to output voltage pulses with various phase delays to demonstrate improved pumping efficiency using metachronal waves. These powerful results, demonstrated experimentally and confirmed using theoretical computations, illustrate a pathway towards fine-scale microfluidic manipulation, with applications from microfluidic pumping to microrobotic locomotion. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

Date Published

Journal

Nature

Volume

605

Issue

7911

Number of Pages

681-686,

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85130688612&doi=10.1038%2fs41586-022-04645-w&partnerID=40&md5=8eed760ef4013a58722d70c5b2a619fc

DOI

10.1038/s41586-022-04645-w

Group (Lab)

Itai Cohen Group
Paul McEuen Group

Funding Source

EFMA-1935252
NNCI-2025233
ARO W911NF-18-1-0032
DMR-1719875
682754
FA9550-16-1-0031

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