Look: how are robots made at the size of a cell

MIT scientists have developed a method to mbad-produce robots of a size that can be used to monitor conditions inside an oil or gas pipeline. gas or to look for a disease while floating in the blood.

These tiny devices, called by the "syncells" team (abbreviation for "synthetic cells"), rely heavily on the control of the natural fracturing process of fragile and atomically thin materials. The process, called "autoperforation," directs the fracture lines to produce tiny pockets of predictable size and shape.

These circuits contain electronic circuits and materials for study published in the journal Nature Materials .

Fragile Graphene

The system, developed by researchers at the Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, uses a two-dimensional form of carbon called graphene, which forms the outer structure of tiny syncellules. From a size ranging from that of a human red blood cell, from about 10 microns to about 10 times larger, these tiny objects "begin to look and behave like a living biological cell," said Michael Strano, professor at MIT. "In fact, under the microscope, you could probably convince most people that it's a cell."

A layer of material is deposited on a surface and then tiny points of a polymeric material containing the electronic components of the devices. , are deposited by a sophisticated laboratory version of an inkjet printer. Then a second layer of graphene is placed on top.

"People think that graphene, an ultra-thin but extremely hard-wearing material, is a" floppy disk ", but is actually fragile," Strano said. However, instead of considering this fragility as a problem, the team understood that it could be used to their advantage.

he produces pieces of uniform shape and size. According to Strano, there is a wide range of potential new applications for such robotic devices the size of a cell. As a demonstration, the team "wrote" the letters M, I and T in a memory array within a synchronous, which stores information under different levels of electrical conductivity. This information can then be "read" with the aid of an electrical probe, which shows that the material can function as a form of electronic memory in which data can be written, read and erased at will. It can also store data without the need for energy, which can be used to collect information later.

Researchers have shown that particles are stable for several months, even when floating in the water, which is difficult. solvent for the electronics, according to Strano.