Abstract:
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Self-powered micro-machines are promising tools for the future environmental remediation technology. Waste water treatment and water reuse is an essential part of environmental sustainability. Herein, we present reusable Fe/Pt multi-functional active micro-cleaners that are capable of degrading organic pollutants by generated hydroxyl radicals via Fenton-like reaction. Various different properties of micro-cleaners such as the effect of their size, short-term storage, long-term storage, reusability, continuous swimming capability, surface composition and mechanical properties are studied. We find that micro-cleaners can continuously swim for more than 24 hours and can be stored more than 5 weeks during multiple cleaning cycles. Micro-cleaners can also be reused, which reduces the cost of the process. Over the reuse cycles, the outer iron surface of the Fe/Pt micro-cleaners generates in-situ heterogeneous Fenton catalyst and releases a low concentration of iron into the treated water while the mechanical properties also appear to be improved due to both surface composition and structural changes. Results have been characterized by SEM, XPS, Nanoindentation and Finite Element Modeling (FEM). |