Nanoswimmer Energy Transduction System: Influence of Branching

Abstract

Nanoswimmers are of interest among researchers for their utility in propelling nanorobots to specific target for drug delivery, nanosurgery, in vivo biomedical applications such as in treatment of brain tumor and Alzheimer’s disease and similar applications. On-board powering is the major concern for locomotion of nanoswimmer and is being considered to be addressed by energy transduction mechanism to harness energy from surrounding using energy of stochastic vibrations by electrostatic, electromagnetic, and piezoelectric means. Among all, piezoelectric is emerging as a promising conversion transduction mechanism of energy harnessing for artificial nanoswimmer. In this context, in present work, an elastic flagellum of a nanoswimmer is modeled as a cantilever beam and a simulation study is done in COMSOL. The novel design of branched flagellum is conceived, modeled, and simulated. COMSOL simulation studies have been performed to compare the effect of primary and secondary branching in flagellum design in terms of stress and electric potential. Enhancement in stress and electric potential is observed approximately 20 and 15% on increasing secondary branching uniformly on the main structure of cantilever beam towards free end and keeping primary branches constant. An enhanced stress allows for larger efficiency of conversion mechanism and, therefore, it is concluded that branching of flagellum can be pivotal in increasing on-board harnessing of energy for propulsion of nanorobots.