MIT develops method to assemble hundreds of cell size robots

Imagine being able to quickly, easily and accurately create an army of cell-sized microbots? Well, a group of engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been able to do that, using a method that takes advantage of the natural breakdown of thin and brittle materials like graphene.

Process creates small synthetic cells, called "syncells", that can eventually serve to monitor the condition of fuel oil or gas within a pipeline or look for disease while floating in the blood flow of a human organism. .

The process, called “self-drilling, ” allows engineers to control the material's natural fracture lines - handling them so that they behave exactly the way researchers want them. In this case, the result is tiny structures that contain electrical circuits and other elements that can collect, record and transmit data.

How is this produced?

To make these syncells, you first need to have a graphene layer on a surface. Small dots of a polymer containing the electronic fragments are deposited by means of a 3D printer. Then a second layer of graphene is deposited on it.

After they are arranged in this way, the whole structure stretches until it begins to break and then only the circular shapes, the syncells, result from this unity. In addition to applications in industry and medicine, this method can already be considered as innovative and has great potential for use on other fronts.

With the “controlled fracture” of “self-drilling”, it is possible to make a great deal of progress in the area of ​​manipulating objects on the micro and nano scale.

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