Bioinspired Lubricated Slippery Magnetic Responsive Microplate Array for High Performance Multi-Substance Transport

In nature, many organisms have the ability to transport substances, such as bubbles, droplets, or solids, on demand to meet their survival needs. Inspired by these distinct behaviors, a variety of substance transport strategies have been developed for promising applications in microfluidics, microelectronics, and biomedicine. However, it is still challenging to achieve versatile multi-substance (gas, liquid, and solid) transport. In this work, a triple-biologically inspired lubricated slippery magnetic-responsive microplate array (LS-MMA) by integrating the characteristics of fish scales, Nepenthes peristome, and respiratory cilia is proposed for multi-substance transport. Under the actuation of the moving magnetic field, the microplates bend and overlap sequentially to form a continuous slippery surface with large curvature. With the continuous motion of the slippery surface, active multi-substance transport can be realized. The transport speed of the bubbles, droplets, and solid glass balls can reach approximate to 5, approximate to 14, and approximate to 80 mm s(-1), respectively. By virtue of the lubricant's capillary sticking property to the substance, the LS-MMA also realizes 3D on-demand transport of bubbles and droplets. The LS-MMA-based multi-substance transport strategy improves the applicability and flexibility of target manipulation and has a broad potential application in the fields of microchemical reactions and biomedical engineering.