Micromachines (Jan 2018)

Hydrophobic Janus Foam Motors: Self-Propulsion and On-The-Fly Oil Absorption

  • Xiaofeng Li,
  • Fangzhi Mou,
  • Jingjing Guo,
  • Zhuoyi Deng,
  • Chuanrui Chen,
  • Leilei Xu,
  • Ming Luo,
  • Jianguo Guan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/mi9010023
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
p. 23

Abstract

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In this work, we for the first time have proposed and fabricated a self-propelled Janus foam motor for on-the-fly oil absorption on water by simply loading camphor/stearic acid (SA) mixture as fuels into one end of the SA-modified polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) foam. The as-fabricated Janus foam motors show an efficient Marangoni effect-based self-propulsion on water for a long lifetime due to the effective inhibition of the rapid release of camphor by the hydrophobic SA in the fuel mixture. Furthermore, they can automatically search, capture, and absorb oil droplets on the fly, and then be spontaneously self-assembled after oil absorption due to the self-propulsion of the motors as well as the attractive capillary interactions between the motors and oil droplets. This facilitates the subsequent collection of the motors from water after the treatment. Since the as-developed Janus foam motors can effectively integrate intriguing behaviors of the self-propulsion, efficient oil capture, and spontaneous self-assembly, they hold great promise for practical applications in water treatment.

Keywords