Full Text:
Researchers have found if you want to form very flexible chains of nanoparticles in liquid in order to build tiny robots with flexible joints or make magnetically self-healing gels, you need to revert to childhood and think about sandcastles. The researchers found that magnetic nanoparticles encased in oily liquid shells can bind together in water, much like sand particles mixed with the right amount of water can form sandcastles.
Image credit: Bhuvnesh Bharti and Orlin Velev, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University
