Programmable degrading engine powered photoactivated organic colloidal motors

Owing to environmental and health concerns, engineered nanobots are confronting tremendous challenges in the practical transition to industrial and civil applications. Even if the nanomaterials are made of biodegradable components, they still need to suffer a long-time decomposing process to completely destroy the nanostructures. Here, we report a straightforward and scalable preparation of light-driven organic colloidal motors assembled by macromolecular payloads and photoactivated azo-containing polymer engines through a continuous nanoprecipitation process. In response to UV irradiation, the light-fueled polymer engine enables converting light to chemical energy by photodegrading the polymer-aggregated phase into short-chained biodegradable residues and environmental-friendly nitrogen gas. The release behavior of the nitrogen independent of the surrounding chemical medium can be conveniently programmed for on-demand powering the motors (up to ∼120 μm/s) to carry out transport missions in various complicated environments (e.g. high viscous and high ionic solution, tumor matrix). The organic polymer engine can be completely deconstructed after the mission accomplishment for relieving potential environmental risks of the engineered nanomachines.