Maria-Hormigos Roberto, Mayorga-Martinez Carmen C, Pumera Martin
Center for Advanced Functional Nanorobots, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, 616628, Prague, Czech Republic.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 03722, South Korea.
Small Methods. 2023 Jan;7(1):e2201014. doi: 10.1002/smtd.202201014. Epub 2022 Nov 21.
"Soft" robotics based on hydrogels appears as an alternative to the traditional technology of "hard" robotics. Soft microrobots are employed for drug delivery and cell manipulation. This work develops magnetic hydrogel-based microrobots using chitosan (CHI) as the body of the micromotor and Fe O nanoparticles to allow for its magnetic actuation. In addition, ZnO nanoparticles are incorporated inside the CHI body of the microrobot to act as an active component for pollutants photodegradation. CHI@Fe O -ZnO microrobots are used for the efficient photodegradation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The high absorption of CHI hydrogel enhances the POP photodegradation, degrading it 75% in just 30 min. The adsorption-degradation and magnetic properties of CHI@Fe O -ZnO microrobots are used in five cycles while maintaining up to 60% photodegradation efficiency. The proof-of-concept present in this work represents a simple way to obtain soft microrobots with magnetic actuation and photodegradation functionalities for several water purification applications.
基于水凝胶的“软”机器人技术似乎是传统“硬”机器人技术的一种替代方案。软微型机器人用于药物输送和细胞操作。这项工作使用壳聚糖（CHI）作为微电机主体，并结合Fe₃O₄纳米颗粒来开发基于磁性水凝胶的微型机器人，以实现其磁驱动。此外，ZnO纳米颗粒被掺入微型机器人的CHI主体内，作为污染物光降解的活性成分。CHI@Fe₃O₄-ZnO微型机器人用于高效光降解持久性有机污染物（POPs）。CHI水凝胶的高吸附性增强了POP的光降解效果，仅在30分钟内就将其降解了75%。CHI@Fe₃O₄-ZnO微型机器人的吸附-降解和磁性特性可在五个循环中使用，同时保持高达60%的光降解效率。这项工作中展示的概念验证代表了一种简单的方法，可获得具有磁驱动和光降解功能的软微型机器人，用于多种水净化应用。
