Self-Propelled Nanorockets for Water Monitoring and Pollutants Purification

Self-propelled catalytic microrockets, capable of converting energy into movement and forces, have shown considerable promise for addressing environmental problems. It can be widely used in environmental areas that would benefit from these developments, including protecting the water resource and ensure widespread access to clean and affordable water.In this work, a self-propelled polymer-based microrocket, which is proposed to monitor the water quality and remove organic and inorganic pollutants, is fabricated and investigated. The effects of electropolymerized outer layers and the concentration of the microrocket, upon the removal of pollutants are evaluated. Furthermore, the adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms are also studied. As we found, polymer-based microrocket provides a highly efficient way to remove pollution particles and purify water due to the motion of microrocket.