Removal of oil is very important for environmental remediation when considering its negative impacts on living organisms and on the quality of water, groundwater, and soil. Here, we report on the application of hydrophobic magnetic hydrogen-bonded organic pigment-based microrobots for oil removal. The microrobots can be wirelessly navigated in a transversal rotating magnetic field, with full control of their trajectory. In addition, the velocity of magnetic microrobots can be easily controlled by changing the frequency. Due to their hydrophobic nature, the microrobots were able to enter droplets of spilled oil. Consequently, the navigation of the oil droplets was enabled in a magnetic field. Moreover, the microrobots captured within the oil droplets exhibited a swarm-like behavior; they collectively navigated toward further oil droplets that were collected and transferred to a desired location. This concept does not require the use of any additional fuel or surfactants, which is crucial for large-scale oil pollution treatment. Therefore, we believe that these microrobot swarms have great potential in remediating aqueous environments.

Center for Advanced Functional Nanorobots Department of Inorganic Chemistry University of Chemistry and Technology Prague Technicka 5 166 28 Prague Czech Republic

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Yonsei University 50 Yonsei ro Seodaemun gu Seoul 03722 Korea

Department of Medical Research China Medical University Hospital China Medical University No 91 Hsueh Shih Road Taichung 40402 Taiwan

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science VSB Technical University of Ostrava 17 listopadu 2172 15 708 00 Ostrava Czech Republic

Citace poskytuje Crossref.org

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