MOFBOTS: Metal–Organic‐Framework‐Based Biomedical Microrobots

TLDR

Motile metal‑organic frameworks (MOFs) are potential candidates to serve as small‑scale robotic platforms for applications in environmental remediation, targeted drug delivery, or nanosurgery. This new approach toward the fabrication of integrated multifunctional systems will open new avenues in soft microrobotics beyond current applications. The authors fabricated magnetic helical microstructures coated with biocompatible, pH‑responsive ZIF‑8 that swim along predesigned tracks under weak rotational magnetic fields, enabling single‑cell targeting and controlled cargo delivery within microfluidic networks.

Abstract

Motile metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are potential candidates to serve as small-scale robotic platforms for applications in environmental remediation, targeted drug delivery, or nanosurgery. Here, magnetic helical microstructures coated with a kind of zinc-based MOF, zeolitic imidazole framework-8 (ZIF-8), with biocompatibility characteristics and pH-responsive features, are successfully fabricated. Moreover, it is shown that this highly integrated multifunctional device can swim along predesigned tracks under the control of weak rotational magnetic fields. The proposed systems can achieve single-cell targeting in a cell culture media and a controlled delivery of cargo payloads inside a complex microfluidic channel network. This new approach toward the fabrication of integrated multifunctional systems will open new avenues in soft microrobotics beyond current applications.