Manipulating the Motion of Gold Aggregates Using Stimulus‐Responsive Patterned Polymer Brushes as a Motor

An important goal and major challenge of material science and nanotechnology is building nanomotors for manipulating the motion of nanoparticles (NPs). Here, it is demonstrated that patterned, stimulus‐responsive polymer brush microstructures can be used as motor arrays to manipulate the movement of gold NP aggregates in response to external stimuli that induce a conformational change in the brushes as the driving force. The motion of NP aggregates in the out‐of‐plane direction is achieved with displacements ranging from nanometers to sub‐micrometers. These patterned polymer‐brush microstructures can find applications as efficient motor arrays and nanosensors, and benefit the design of more complex nanodevices.