Catalytic Janus colloids produce rapid motion in fluids by decomposing dissolved fuel. There is great potential to exploit these “autonomous chemical swimmers” in applications currently performed by diffusion limited passive colloids. Key application areas for colloids include transporting active ingredients for drug delivery, gathering analytes for medical diagnostics, and self-assembling into regular structures used for photonic materials and lithographic templating. For drug delivery and medical diagnostics, controlling colloidal motion is key in order to target therapies, and transport analytes through lab-on-a-chip devices. Here, the autonomous motion of catalytic Janus colloids can remove the current requirements to induce and control colloid motion using external fields, thereby reducing the technological complexity required for medical therapies and diagnostics. For materials applications exploiting colloidal self-assembly, the additional interactions introduced by catalytic activity and rapid motion are predicted to allow access to new reconfigurable and responsive structures.

中文翻译：

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催化Janus胶体：控制化学微泳的轨迹。

催化性Janus胶体通过分解溶解的燃料而在流体中产生快速运动。在目前由扩散受限的被动胶体进行的应用中，利用这些“自主化学游动体”具有巨大的潜力。胶体的主要应用领域包括运输药物的活性成分，收集用于医学诊断的分析物以及自组装成用于光子材料和光刻模板的规则结构。对于药物输送和医学诊断，控制胶体运动是关键，以便靶向治疗并通过芯片实验室设备传输分析物。在这里，催化Janus胶体的自主运动可以消除使用外部磁场诱导和控制胶体运动的当前要求，从而降低了医学治疗和诊断所需的技术复杂性。对于利用胶体自组装的材料应用，预计由催化活性和快速运动引入的其他相互作用将允许使用新的可重构和响应性结构。