Graphene oxide induced enhancement of light-driven micromotor with biocompatible fuels

A highly efficient light-driven cuprous oxide @ graphene oxide (Cu 2 O@GO) micromotor which can be propelled with various biocompatible fuels is described. The Cu 2 O@GO micromotors, which achieve enhanced photocatalytic performance by doping Cu 2 O with GO, can be efficiently propelled by visible light and even near infrared light. Compared with conventional plain Cu 2 O micromotors, which can only be driven by visible light, the Cu 2 O@GO micromotors show more than 3 times faster speeds under the full range of visible light with biocompatible glucose fuel. In addition, due to the GO-induced enhanced photocatalytic performance and local photoinduced thermal effects, such motors can be powered by NIR with a series of biocompatible fuels, such as glucose, leucine, and urea solutions, with speeds reaching up to 11.39 µm s −1 (in glucose), which extends the excitation wavelength of photocatalytic micromotors to near-infrared light. This novel strategy of improving the performance of light-driven micromotors via GO doping has opened up a new and attractive path for the preparation of micromotors with potential applications in biological environments.