Tiny pieces of plastic are everywhere. From urban environments to remote areas of pollution It can take hundreds of years for plastic to completely degrade. It is true that catalytic compounds activated by sunlight can speed up the process. But getting these compounds to react with microplastics less than 5 millimeters in size is difficult. A recent report in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces revealed that a research group has developed a self-driving microrobot. that can swim and cling to the plastic and then destroy them. The report states that to turn catalyst materials intomicrobotslight-powered “”. They created star-shaped particles of an inorganic compound called bismuth vanadate-BiVO4) and uniformly coated the 4-8 µm wide structure with iron oxide. This microrobot swims through the gaps among the clutter ofmicroplastics to manipulate the microplastic parts along their length. The researchers found that under visible light The microrobots were aimed at four common plastic types. The team irradiated four types of plastic parts coated with a microrobot catalyst that were placed in a dilute hydrogen peroxide solution for 7 days. 3% weight loss and the surface went from smooth to pitted. Micromolecules and plastic components were also found in the remaining solution. pointed out that this autonomous microrobot catalyst Paving the way for systems capable of capturing and degrading microplastics in hard-to-reach areas.
