For humans, microplastics are hardly recognizable — and yet it is precisely these small plastic particles that pollute the environmental norm. The microscopically small particles of plastic reach the bottom of the sea and harm nature and the ecosystem. Researchers at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague have now developed a solution: Microscopic robots that move autonomously through bodies of water and break down microplastics through photocatalysis.
Photocatalysis uses the power of the sun to break down the plastic, because under the influence of sunlight it degrades faster than in CO2 and hydrogen. The researchers took advantage of this knowledge in developing the robots. According to the scientists, plastic naturally takes several years to decompose. The robots would accelerate this process enormously.
With the help of sunlight, the robots can move on their own
“Our intelligent microrobots, powered by visible light, are able to capture and degrade microplastics virtually in passing,” the scientists write in Tech and Nature magazine. Once they touch microplastics, the robots attach themselves to them and enhance the chemical reaction photocatalysis by the photocatalytic material bismuth vanadate. The robots can primarily degrade the two plastics polylactic acid and polycaprolactone in this way, but in the future they should be able to decompose as many different types of plastic as possible.
Thanks to the special composition of the photocatalytic material bismuth vanadate and the magnetic iron oxide, the machines can even move themselves as soon as they encounter sunlight. However, they can also be remotely controlled by built-in magnetic fields. The robots are the size of a blood cell and travel several millimeters per second.
