Self-Steerable Propulsion of Disk-Like Micro-Craft with Dual Off-Center Nanoengines

This paper reports
a novel disk-like micro-craft with dual off-center
nozzle nanoengines, consisting of three different metals: gold, nickel,
and platinum. A bubble propulsion mechanism originating from momentum
change induced by the detachment of oxygen bubbles is proposed to
elaborate the self-steerable propulsion of the disk-like gold–nickel–platinum
micro-craft. The as-proposed micro-craft is fabricated by a layer-by-layer
deposition method based on the micro-electro-mechanical systems technology.
Herein, the self-steerable propulsion of the fabricated micro-craft
dispersed in deionized water with different hydrogen peroxide concentrations
is characterized. As a consequence, the speed of the micro-craft is
increased with the increment of hydrogen peroxide concentration. In
addition, the micro-craft can always move forward linearly.