Photocatalytic TiO₂ Micromotors for Removal of Microplastics and Suspended Matter

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, as well as their phoretic interaction with their environment. Here, we present two novel strategies for the elimination of microplastics using photocatalytic Au@Ni@TiO₂-based micromotors. We show that individual catalytic particles as well as assembled chains show excellent collection and removal of suspended matter and microplastics from environmental water samples.