3D Printing System of Magnetic Anisotropy for Artificial Cilia

In this paper, we developed a new 3D-printing system for magnetic elastomer, and demonstrated to fabricate artificial cilia. Natural cilia are hair-like organ found in nature. They are effective fluidic system in the natural world that are widely observed on surfaces of microorganisms of creatures, such as Paramecium and throat surface of mammals. Recently, the motion of cilia has been analyzed and mimicked for developing soft actuator, for example, some studies on artificial cilia driven magnetically have been reported. They are small soft actuators, and there are various manufacturing methods for these actuators depending on materials and products. Among them, authors have already developed the concept of a printing system that not only forms a three-dimensional object but also prints out the deformation of the structure. This system can fabricate various shapes of soft actuators without any assembly. In this report, we utilized UV-curable urethane acrylate as a more flexible material than that used in the previous reports, and fabricated artificial cilia by the printer. We set magnetic anisotropy to each cilium and mimicked a metachronal wave, sequential action of plural cilia that causes effective flow.