Femtosecond Laser Writing of Stepwise Detachable and Biodegradable Microrobots for Adjustable Locomotion and Drug Delivery

Inspired by natural organisms' controllable detachment, various detachable robots have been engineered toward targeted cargo delivery and environmental sensing. However, creating stepwise detachable and degradable robots at the microscale remains challenging. Herein, we report stepwise detachable and degradable microrobots (∼50 µm) fabricated from a single hydrogel using spatially graded direct laser writing (SGDLW), much smaller than previously reported detachable robots. SGDLW precisely controls local laser exposure dose, thereby programming microstructure crosslinking density, resulting in controllable cross-sectional porosity ranging from 17.6% to 37.2%, and ultimately adjusting the degradation time (from 2 min to 44 min). By encoding different local crosslinking densities, microstructures capable of single-step detachment are designed, including artificial microflowers, microdandelions, and microfish eggs. Moreover, multi-step detachment of microtrees and microdandelions can be achieved with minute-scale temporal programmability. Finally, bioinspired microrobots demonstrate promising functionalities of adjustable locomotion and drug delivery, underscoring their potential in microrobotics and targeted drug delivery.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Materials
Published
2026-09-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.75013
Primary Topic
Micro and Nano Robotics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Femtosecond Laser Writing of Stepwise Detachable and Biodegradable Microrobots for Adjustable Locomotion and Drug Delivery

Yawei Wu, Xin Song, Yanlei Hu, Zuojun Shen et al.
Advanced Materials
Micro and Nano Robotics
article

Femtosecond Laser Writing of Stepwise Detachable and Biodegradable Microrobots for Adjustable Locomotion and Drug Delivery

Yawei Wu, Xin Song, Yanlei Hu, Zuojun Shen, Liang Yang, Jiaru Chu, Chenchu Zhang, Shiwu Zhang, Zhaoxin Lao, Dong Wu, Hao Wu, Wenji Yang, Jiawen Li, Sizhu Wu, Yue Dai, Chen Xin, Li Zhang
article en

Abstract

Inspired by natural organisms' controllable detachment, various detachable robots have been engineered toward targeted cargo delivery and environmental sensing. However, creating stepwise detachable and degradable robots at the microscale remains challenging. Herein, we report stepwise detachable and degradable microrobots (∼50 µm) fabricated from a single hydrogel using spatially graded direct laser writing (SGDLW), much smaller than previously reported detachable robots. SGDLW precisely controls local laser exposure dose, thereby programming microstructure crosslinking density, resulting in controllable cross-sectional porosity ranging from 17.6% to 37.2%, and ultimately adjusting the degradation time (from 2 min to 44 min). By encoding different local crosslinking densities, microstructures capable of single-step detachment are designed, including artificial microflowers, microdandelions, and microfish eggs. Moreover, multi-step detachment of microtrees and microdandelions can be achieved with minute-scale temporal programmability. Finally, bioinspired microrobots demonstrate promising functionalities of adjustable locomotion and drug delivery, underscoring their potential in microrobotics and targeted drug delivery.

Advanced Materials
University of Science and Technology of China (CN), Hefei University of Technology (CN), City University of Hong Kong (HK), Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK), Suzhou University of Science and Technology (CN), Precision Research (United States) (US)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Youth Innovation Promotion Association
Openalex Percentile: Top 17%
Micro and Nano Robotics
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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