Magnetic remote actuation of soft materials is attractive for applications such as transforming materials and medical robots. However, due to manufacturing limitations, microscale magnetoactive devices are scarce and light-based additive manufacturing methods, despite achieving microscale resolution, struggle with particle-induced light scattering. Moreover, large hard-magnetic microparticles restrict ultimate feature sizes and deformation of soft-magnetic nanoparticle composites […]
We present a modular design strategy for the one-step fabrication of arrays of magnetically responsive microactuators connected to the substrate via compliant hinges. We use direct laser writing in the form of two-photon crosslinking within bilayer films to generate three-dimensional microstructures in which magnetic nanoparticles are embedded in the upper layer. This part of the […]
Mechanical forces play a crucial role in many biological processes, including cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions. The generation of surface-attached multilayer micromagnet systems fabricated by two-photon lithography and the use of such systems to perform single-cell actuation are presented. The actuators are generated by two-photon crosslinking and consist of a soft and flexible surface-attached hydrogel layer […]