Microplastics can be harmful to animals if they are eaten. It's difficult to remove the tiny particles from the environment once they settle at the bottom of the water. A light-activated fish robot has been created that can pick up and remove microplastics.
Microplastics can fall into cracks and crevices in the water. There is a proposal to use small, flexible and self-propelled robots to clean up pollutants. Soft robot materials can be damaged in the water. It is possible to find mother-of-pearl on the inside of clam shells. The Nacre layers go from one side to the other with a mixture of calcium carbonate and mineral-polymers. In order to create a bendable and durable material for softrobots, the team wanted to try a similar type of gradient structure.
The researchers were able to link the -cyclodextrin molecule to the sulfonated Graphene. The solutions of thenanosheets were put into the latex mixture. A layer-by-layer assembly method created an ordered concentration of the particles through the material from which the robot was made. The robot was propelled forward by a near-infrared light laser that was turned on and off. The robot was able to move 2.67 body lengths per second, which is about the same speed as active phytoplankton, but it was faster. The swimming fish robot was shown to be able to remove polystyrene microplastics. Even after being cut, the material could still be used to remove microplastics.
The researchers say that the fish robot can be used to monitor pollutants in harsh aquatic environments.
More information: Robust, Healable, Self-Locomotive Integrated Robots Enabled by Noncovalent Assembled Gradient Nanostructure, Nano Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c01375 Journal information: Nano Letters
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