Nature-Inspired Micro/Nanomotors

Livings in nature have already evolved into unique morphology, structure, materials, behaviors and functions to survive in complex natural environment. Nature has inspired the design ideas, preparation methods and applications of versatile micro/nanomotors. This review summarizes diverse nature-inspired micro/nanomotors which can be divided into five groups: (i) Natural morphology-inspired micro/nanomotors whose shape are designed to imitate the morphology of plants, animals and objects in nature. (ii) Natural structure-inspired micro/nanomotors which use structures from plants, red blood cells and platelet cells as components of micro/nanomotors, or directly use sperm cells and microorganism as engine of micro/nanomotors. (iii) Natural behavior-inspired micro/nanomotors which are proposed to mimick the natural behaviors such as motion behavior, swarm behavior, and communication behavior between individuals. (iv) Micro/nanomotors inspired by both natural morphology and behavior. Nature make it possible for synthetic micro/nanomotors to possess interesting morphology, novel preparation methods, new propulsion modes, innovative functions and broad applications. The nature-inspired micro/nanomotors could offer a promising platform for various practical fields.