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Self-propelled motors

Light-seeking synthetic trees

Nanostructured photocatalytic microrods can swim either towards or away from a light source depending on their surface functionalization.

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Figure 1: A general mechanism of self-electrophoretic motion induced by catalytic redox reactions occurring at opposite ends of an object.
Figure 2: Schematic of the self-propelled photocatalytic microtree of Tang and co-workers.

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Correspondence to Ayusman Sen.

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Sen, A. Light-seeking synthetic trees. Nature Nanotech 11, 1003–1004 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2016.222

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