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Researchers at the Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new method of mbad production with tiny robots.
The microscopic devices, which the team calls 'syncells' – short for synthetic cells – could eventually be used to monitor the conditions of an oil or gas pipeline, or to search out the disease.
The team has been able to make these tiny devices by using a method for controlling the natural fracturing process of atomic-thin, brittle materials, directing the fracture lines so that they produce miniscule pockets of a predictable size and shape.
These are electronic circuits and materials that can collect, record, and output data. This process, called 'autoperforation', was uncovered by MIT Professor Michael Strano, post doctorate student Pingwei Liu, graduate student Albert Liu, and eight others.
The system uses a two-dimensional form of carbon, called graphene, which forms the outer structure of the tiny syncells.
One layer of the material is a surface of a paper, then a tiny dots of a polymer material, containing the electronics for the devices, are deposited by a laboratory version of an inkjet printer. Then, a second layer of graphene is ugly on top.
The new system controls the fracturing process so that it produces more than one of the other parts of the world, it produces parts of uniform shape and size.
"What we discovered is that you can impose a strain on the fracture to be guided, and you can use that for controlled manufacturing," said Strano.
Dots, which form the round pillar shapes, where the graphene drapes over the rounded edges of the pillars form lines of high strain in the material.
As a result, the fractures are concentrated on the boundaries, then the graphene will completely fracture, but the fracture will be guided by the periphery of the pillar. "
The result is a neat, round piece of graphene that looks as if it had been cleanly cut out by a microscopic hole punch.
Ranging in size from that of a human red blood cell, about 10 micrometers across, up to about 10 times that size, these tiny objects "start to look and behave like a biological living cell." In fact, under a microscope, you could probably convince most people, "Strano added.
"I think it's up to a whole new toolkit for micro- and nanofabrication."
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