Light-driven nanomotors are in the forefront of technology due to their promising characteristic for enviromental, biomedical and analytical applications. However, scarce real applications have been developed. This projects aims to fill the lack of practical applications. In a first step, TiO2-Au Janus particles will be synthesized due to their highly efficient propulsion under UV light and their easy fuctionalization due to thiol-Au and organosilane chemistry. Then, these micromotors will be modified with specific receptors, ligands for environmental extraction of heavy metals and U(IV) from water, and specific antibodies for biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and sepsis in order to perform the diagnostic of these deseases in whole blood through immunosensing approaches using the micromotors as recognition element. As last application, the nanomotors will be modified with pH responsive hydrogels to encapsulate a model antitumoral drug and used for the targeting drug release of the drug to carcer cells due to biorecognition and a decrase of the pH on the surronding of the cancer cells.

Keywords
Nano-Micromotors; Janus particles; light-powered; analytical chemistry; biomarkers; diagnosis; environmental ions extraction; drug delivery;