AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB026180155
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Early Access

Magnetically programmable 3D printing of liquid metal robots for targeted therapy

Weichen Feng1 Xiaohui Shan1 Bo Wang2 Xiyu Zhu3 Bo Yuan4 Minghui Guo5 Jianye Gao5* Jing Liu1,5*
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1 School of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
2 Center of Double Helix, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China
3 Research Institute of Petroleum Processing, SINOPEC, Beijing 100083, China
4 School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing 102206, China
5 State Key Laboratory of Cryogenic Science and Technology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Cryobiomedicine, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing100190, China
Received: 28 April 2026 | Revised: 21 May 2026 | Accepted: 25 May 2026 | Published online: 25 May 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Magnetic liquid metal soft robots hold promise for minimally invasive interventions in complex in vivo environments, yet their fabrication challenges simultaneously achieve structural customization, spatial magnetic programming, and rapid conductive network construction. Here, we present a magnetic-field-assisted 3D printing strategy to fabricate soft robots with programmable magnetic domains and magnetothermal therapeutic capabilities. Using acid-assisted de-oxidation and Ag-coated NdFeB particles to enhance wetting, we prepare magnetic liquid metals that exhibit magnetic-field-induced coalescence and achieve an order-of-magnitude increase in electrical conductivity. Furthermore, a geometry-dependent model based on eddy current losses reveals that printed paths significantly improve heating efficiency under alternating magnetic fields. Leveraging a locally oriented magnetic field during printing, we encode spatially resolved hard-magnetic domains, yielding predictable 3D deformation and multiple gaits including grasping, crawling, and rolling. Finally, we demonstrate localized magnetothermal heating on ex vivo porcine colon tissues, validated by thermal measurements and finite element simulations. This study offers a manufacturable, programmable, and scalable liquid metal additive manufacturing platform for personalized magnetically driven magnetothermal therapy in complex biological environments.

Keywords
Liquid metals
Soft robots
Magnetically programmable 3D printing
Magnetothermal therapy
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing