NanoTrain: Programmable colloidal nanomachine

For years scientists have dreamt of nanomachines and nanorobots, which allows precise interactions with nanoscale objects. Various types of nanomachines has been invented and tested, however key bottlenecks remain. Forces at submicrometric scales are weak and slow, control is hard to achieve, and power cannot be reliably supplied. Therefore, the main question arises: Is it possible to build a fully programmable nanomachine, with own efficient and directional propulsion system, which could take on board arbitrary cargoes and be easily controlled by external magnetic fields? Our concept, combining sequential capillarity-assisted particle assembly approach (sCAPA) with recently discovered thermo-responsive colloidal actuators, can open-up new possibilities for building nanomechanical devices e.g. fully controlled shuttles devices for targeted delivery or nano-pistons serving as coherent force source on-demand.