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Massively parallel microbubble nano-assembly

delete2025-07-22
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OA
AI
H
Hyungmok Joh
连
连宾 (Bin Lian)
S
Shaw-Iong Hsueh
马
马智超 (Zhichao Ma)
K
Keng‐Jung Lee
S
Si-Yang Zheng
P
Peer Fischer *
D
Donglei Fan *
DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-62070-9delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Microbubbles are an important tool due to their unique mechanical, acoustic, and dynamical properties. Yet, it remains challenging to generate microbubbles quickly in a parallel, biocompatible, and controlled manner. Here, we present an opto-electrochemical method that combines precise light-based projection with low-energy electrolysis, realizing defined microbubble patterns that in turn trigger assembly processes. The size of the bubbles can be controlled from a few to over hundred micrometers with a spatial accuracy of ~2 μm. The minimum required light intensity is only ~0.1 W/cm2, several orders of magnitude lower compared to other light-enabled methods. We demonstrate the assembly of prescribed patterns of 40-nm nanocrystals, 200 nm extracellular vesicles, polymer nanospheres, and live bacteria. We show how nanosensor-bacterial-cell arrays can be formed for spectroscopic profiling of metabolites and antibiotic response of bacterial assemblies. The combination of a photoconductor with electrochemical techniques enables low-energy, low-temperature bubble generation, advantageous for large-scale, one-shot patterning of diverse particles in a biocompatible manner. The microbubble-platform is highly versatile and promises new opportunities in nanorobotics, nanomanufacturing, high-throughput bioassays, single cell omics, bioseparation, and drug screening and discovery. Rapid, biocompatible, and parallel generation of microbubbles remains a major challenge despite their high potential in biomedical and materials applications. The authors introduce a low-energy, biocompatible opto-electrochemical platform that enables precise, parallel microbubble patterning for programmable assembly of nanoscale to biological materials with high spatial accuracy.

Journal

Nature Communications cover
Nature Communications
IF:
15.7
Papers:
9.4W
Citations:
91.2W

Organization

M
Max Planck Institute for Medical Research
Scholars:
65
Papers: 24
Citations: 1.5K
M
Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
Scholars:
137
Papers: 52
Citations: 4.3K
C
Carnegie Mellon University
Scholars:
1.4W
Papers: 1.4W
Citations: 2.7W
T
texas materials institute
Scholars:
13
Papers: 8
Citations: 0
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Cited Papers

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