Nanorobots clean up contaminated water by grabbing hold of pollutants

A sustainable and cost-effective way to clean up industrial wastewater can be achieved with the use of magnets.

Technology 1 March 2022

By Chen Ly.

Chemists have created magnets that can remove pollutants from water. The invention could be scaled up to provide a sustainable and affordable way of cleaning up contaminated water in treatment plants.

The University of Chemistry and Technology, in the Czech Republic, developed thenanorobots by using a temperature-sensitive material and iron oxide. Oxygen and hydrogen atoms were added to the iron oxide to attach to pollutants.

Magnetic fields allow the team to control the movements of the robot.

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The water has a low temperature of around 5 degrees C. The pollutants are trapped when the temperature is raised to 25 degrees. They can be removed from the water using a magnet.

The arsenic was removed from the water in 100 minutes.

These don't need any fuel to operate and can be used repeatedly, making them sustainable and cost-effective.

Pumera hopes the technology can be used to treat water on a larger scale.

This is an exciting work in which the capabilities of stimuli-responsive materials are integrated to create micro-robotic devices for the pickup and disposal of different types of pollutants.

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