Environmental contamination is a major global challenge and the effects of contamination are found in most habitats. In recent times, the pollution by microplastics has come to the global attention and their removal displays an extraordinary challenge with no reasonable solutions presented so far. One of the new technologies holding many promises for environmental remediation on the microscale are self-propelled micromotors. They present several properties that are of academic and technical interest, such as the ability to overcome the diffusion limitation in catalytic processes and their phoretic interaction with their environment. Here, we present two novel strategies for the elimination of microplastics using photocatalytic Au@Ni@TiO 2-based micromotors. We show that individual catalytic particles as well as assembled chains show excellent collection and removal of suspended matter and microplastics from natural water samples. File list (2) download file view on ChemRxiv LLW_Microplastics Manuscript.pdf (1.00 MiB) download file view on ChemRxiv ESI.pdf (726.69 KiB) download file view on ChemRxiv ESI.pdf (726.69 KiB)
<p></p><p> Environmental contamination is a
major global challenge and the effects of contamination are found in most habitats.
In recent times, the pollution by microplastics has come to the global
attention and their removal displays an extraordinary challenge with no
reasonable solutions presented so far. One of the new technologies holding many
promises for environmental remediation on the microscale are self-propelled
micromotors. They present several properties that are of academic and technical
interest, such as the ability to overcome the diffusion limitation in catalytic
processes and their phoretic interaction with their environment. Here, we
present two novel strategies for the elimination of microplastics using
photocatalytic Au@Ni@TiO<sub>2</sub> -based micromotors. We show that
individual catalytic particles as well as assembled chains show excellent
collection and removal of suspended matter and microplastics from natural water
samples.</p><p></p>
<p></p><p> Environmental contamination is a
major global challenge and the effects of contamination are found in most habitats.
In recent times, the pollution by microplastics has come to the global
attention and their removal displays an extraordinary challenge with no
reasonable solutions presented so far. One of the new technologies holding many
promises for environmental remediation on the microscale are self-propelled
micromotors. They present several properties that are of academic and technical
interest, such as the ability to overcome the diffusion limitation in catalytic
processes and their phoretic interaction with their environment. Here, we
present two novel strategies for the elimination of microplastics using
photocatalytic Au@Ni@TiO<sub>2</sub> -based micromotors. We show that
individual catalytic particles as well as assembled chains show excellent
collection and removal of suspended matter and microplastics from natural water
samples.</p><p></p>
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