Biomedical applications of polypyrrole microactuators: from single-cell clinic to microrobots

Microtools that will be useful for the positioning and investigation of biological microstructures must operate under biologically relevant environments, such as cell culture media or blood plasma. They must also be comparatively strong, and preferably allow a muscle like mode of movement. This is given by a novel family of actuators based on conjugated polymers (like polypyrrole, PPy). By miniaturising these structures using standard photolithographic techniques, we can reduce the size down to 10-micrometer dimensions and build mechanically active microdevices. These can be moved and positioned by applying a potential to dope or undope the PPy. These novel structures are now being developed as a unique microactuator technology, suitable for operation in applications coupled to cell biology and biomedicine.