"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.
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Article Synopsis
- Conventional drug delivery often requires high doses, leading to significant side effects, whereas targeted delivery methods using nanoparticles have limited efficacy in reaching their intended sites.
- This study proposes the use of deformable microrobots made from hydrogel capsules, which can navigate challenging environments to deliver drugs more effectively at localized sites, improving biocompatibility and responsiveness.
- A novel, cost-effective method for fabricating these microrobots is introduced, using a gelation process with varying calcium ion concentrations to create functional core-shell structures for potential applications in drug delivery and microrobotics.
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