Researchers have discovered “Nano swimmers” a minuscule self-propelling particle that can escape from mazes as much as 20 times faster than the other passive particles. Its future applications could vary from everyday uses to medication delivery and industrial cleanup also. The agriculture sector is considered to be one of the most important sectors as it gives and produces lots of vegetables and fruits. When a plant is not given proper pesticide, then there are chances of decaying, and it will also make the soil loses its fertility.
These Nano-floats could one day be used to clean up contaminated soil, improve water filtration, or even deliver medication to specific areas of the body, such as in dense tissue. “This is the discovery of an entirely new phenomenon that suggests a wide range of uses,” said Daniel Schwartz, lead author of the article, and Glenn L. Murphy, Professor of Chemical and Bioengineering. These Nano swimmers became popular in theoretical physics about 20 years ago, and people envisioned a variety of uses in the real world. “But unfortunately, these tangible applications have not yet been realized, in part because it’s been quite difficult to observe and model their movement in relevant environments—until now,” said Daniel.
These Nano-floats, also called Janus particles (named after a two-headed Roman god), are small spherical particles made of polymer or silicon dioxide designed with different chemical properties on each side of the sphere. One hemisphere encourages chemical reactions to occur, but the other does not. This creates a chemical field that enables the particle to absorb energy from the environment and convert it into a directional movement, which is also known as self-propulsion.
