title: Characterizing the swimming properties of artificial bacterial flagella.
abstract: Artificial bacterial flagella (ABFs) consist of helical tails resembling natural flagella fabricated by the self-scrolling of helical nanobelts and soft-magnetic heads composed of Cr/Ni/Au stacked thin films. ABFs are controlled wirelessly using a low-strength rotating magnetic field. Self-propelled devices such as these are of interest for in vitro and in vivo biomedical applications. Swimming tests of ABFs show a linear relationship between the frequency of the applied field and the translational velocity when the frequency is lower than the step-out frequency of the ABF. Moreover, the influences of head size on swimming velocity and the lateral drift of an ABF near a solid boundary are investigated. An experimental method to estimate the propulsion matrix of a helical swimmer under a light microscope is developed. Finally, swarm-like behavior of multiple ABFs controlled as a single entity is demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland. lizhang@ethz.ch
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jake J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Abbott
authors.forename: Lixin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Kathrin E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Peyer
authors.forename: Bradley E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Kratochvil
authors.forename: Haixin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bergeles
authors.forename: Bradley J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D002857:Chromium / Q000737:chemistry; D005407:Flagella / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D008280:Magnetics; D008954:Models, Biological; D009532:Nickel / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties; D013550:Swimming
chemical_list: D002857:Chromium; D006046:Gold; D009532:Nickel