Fig. 7: Exemplary applications of the transformation of the magneto-elastomers.

a Schematic and demonstration of in situ particle manipulation with the dynamic transformation of the cellular structure. a-i Schematic illustration of the selective trapping process. 200 (green), 400 (red) and 600 (yellow) µm particles are used here. Dynamic transformation of cellular structure triggered by a rotating magnet results in the extrusion of 600 µm particles. Afterwards, a static magnetic field is imposed to deform the cellular structure with a gap of ~340 µm, followed by the application of a flow disturbance. At this time, 400 µm particles are physically held, while 200 µm particles are flushed away. a-ii Experimental results of the selective separation and trapping of particles according to the deformed lattice size. The scale bar is 200 μm. b Aerosol droplets collection for sensitivity-enhanced biomedical analysis. b-i Schematic of the droplet collection by the dynamic transformation of the magneto-elastomers. b-ii Fluorescence images of the sprayed aerosol and collected droplet doping with fluorescein isothiocyanate. The scale bar is 4 mm. b-iii Relationship between average intensity and position before and after enrichment. c Fluid mixing at low Re using the dynamic transformation of the magneto-elastomers. c-i Schematic diagram of the microfluidic device with Y-shaped fluidic channel. The fluid mixing device includes glycerol layers with two colors and magneto-elastomers. c-ii Efficient fluid mixing with 0 and 40 mL/h flow rate of the inlet. The scale bars are 3 mm. d Untethered swimming robots actuated by the dynamic geometric transformation of magneto-elastomers. d-i Schematic diagram of the propulsion of the swimming robot at the air-water interface and the robotic structure. d-ii Top view and side view of the swimming robot during the actuation to fulfill a rectangular trajectory. The scale bars are 5 mm.