If injectable autonomous robots are to be used in medicine, they must be tiny and capable of being manufactured by the million. They must also have some kind of electronics inside for diagnostic or therapeutic capabilities. Researches at MIT have developed a method for producing so-called “syncells,” or synthetic cells, that can process data inputs and produce outputs, and that are small enough to be injectable into the bloodstream.
The manufacturing process is called “autoperforation,” and it involves carefully managing how graphene cracks so that it can encapsulate a tiny piece of electronics. At first polymer drops containing pieces of electronics are placed on a sheet of graphene, a carbon material only one atom thick. Another graphene sheet is placed on top and stressed precisely so that the sheets crack right around the polymer drops, and fuse together, forming electronic tablets with a graphene exterior. Other “2D” materials , such as molybdenum disulfide and hexagonal boronitride, have been shown by the researchers to work the same.
Though so far the electronics inside these prototype devices are pretty rudimentary and don’t do much beside storing a bit of data for later reading, the new technology will allow scientists to now start thinking of what can be done with these syncells.
Here’s a video from MIT describing the new manufacturing process:
Top photo: Circles on a graphene sheet where the sheet is draped over an array of round posts, creating stresses that will cause these discs to separate from the sheet. The gray bar across the sheet is liquid being used to lift the discs from the surface. Credit: Felice Frankel
Study in journal Nature Materials: Autoperforation of 2D materials for generating two-terminal memristive Janus particles…
Related book: Robotic Systems and Autonomous Platforms…
Via: MIT…
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