arrow
Return

Massively parallel microbubble nano-assembly

delete2025-07-22
delete0
delete
OA
AI
H
Hyungmok Joh
连宾 (Bin Lian)
S
Shaw-Iong Hsueh
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
deleteOriginal
deleteOriginal request for help
deleteShare
deleteSave
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:
9.2W
Citations:
91.2W

Organization

M
Max Planck Institute for Medical Research
Scholars:
62
Papers: 23
Citations: 1.5K
M
Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems
Scholars:
136
Papers: 51
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
researcher View more organizations