Artificial carbon cilium using induced charge electro-osmosis

Artificial cilia are promising as a next generation microfluidic device. In this study, we experimentally report that fibrous carbon wires produced by the self-organization process show cilium motions due to induced charge electro-osmosis (ICEO) under AC electric fields in water. In particular, we experimentally demonstrate that the carbon ICEO cilium with a branching wire structure shows asymmetric beating motion. We believe that our findings will contribute to the research of artificial cilia having asymmetrical motions, which would provide net propulsion in a low Reynolds number regime.