STIMULATOR · Sunlight Active Mesoporous Black TiO2 Micro/Nanomotors
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-10-01 → 2023-11-04
- EU contribution
- €156,981
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Sunlight Active Mesoporous Black TiO2 Micro/Nanomotors
Microplastics can reach the human body by inhalation and ingestion causing inflammation or cell damage. Recently microplastics have been found in the human bloodstream and stool. Most of the microplastics were polystyrene (from food packaging), polyethylene terephthalate (from drinking bottles), and polyethylene (from carrier bags). Hence increased reliance on plastic can cause their absorption by organs, and even cells, which can lead to carcinogenicity, chronic toxicity, genotoxicity, and developmental toxicity. Water-soluble polymers such as polyvinyl alcohol (a polymer used in textiles, paper industries, and in households as detergent pods) and polyethylene glycol (a main ingredient in cosmetics) are also of similar concern. The European Union (EU) circular economy action plan targets microplastics by highlighting the need to tackle the unintentional release of microplastics into the aquatic environment. If not removed during wastewater treatment, these microplastics could enter the aquatic ecosystem in estimated quantities of several thousand tons annually and, hence, to the body of living organisms. Hence, there is a pressing need for an eco-friendly, highly economical, and efficient strategy for the degradation of microplastics. Unlike conventional polymer degradation techniques, light-powered robots can address this problem in a sustainable way. This project, STIMULATOR has developed a longer wavelength (NIR) absorbing single component H2Ti3O7 microrobots from a UV-absorbing white TiO2 mesostructured microrobots for the phototrapping and photofragmentation of microplastics such as polystyrene (PS), polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) for the first time. Using external light sources limits the commercial success of micro/nanorobots (MNRs) which cannot propel under NIR in their single-component form. Hence, it is highly demanding to fabricate a material with UV, Visible, and NIR absorption (natural sunlight utilization) features with no post-synthetic treatment that could lead to a new class of MNRs in the scientific world that could be used and propelled under direct sunlight for the first time for water treatment. These MNRs once achieved, can not only work as a photocatalytic robot for water purification but also in biomedical applications such as anticancer therapy, drug delivery, etc. STIMULATOR addressed these problems and generated new knowledge on robotic research and offer a path for the sustainable degradation of microplastics, mitigating the poisoning of aquatic ecosystems due to microplastics. As the EU is specifically looking for the development and modernization of wastewater treatment plants as part of SDGs, the results of STIMULATOR will be impactful and extremely important owing to the establishment of cutting-edge technology that can support the EU sustainable developmental goals. Hence, the overall objectives of STIMULATOR were 1) Synthesis of mesoporous TiO2 structures (MT); 2) Tuning MT to MT robots (MTRs); 3) MTRs to Mesoporous black TiO2 based robots (MBTRs); 4) Implementation of MBTRs in microplastics trapping and degradation.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Photocatalytic Micro and nanomotors (MNMs) are artificial machines that convert light energy to propulsion and these light-powered machines have garnered considerable attention due to their potential applications in environmental detection/remediation, biomedicine, and microengineering. Since these machines are light controlled, their direction and velocity of motion can be regulated by modulating the intensity and orientation of the light source and the selection of light source is determined according to the absorption spectrum of the MNMs. For real-life applications, it is necessary to harvest solar energy directly for the autonomous propulsion of such motors that will pave the way for a unique motor system with enhanced motor skills. TiO2 is one of the most efficient and most investigated photocatalysts and researches are going on to directly harvest solar energy without using any external light source. It is necessary to synthesise a material that can harvest the whole solar spectrum containing 5% UV (absorb 200-400nm), 43% Visible (absorb 400-700 nm), and 52% IR (700-2500 nm) energy. In such a way, to exploit TiO2, its black version, the ‘black TiO2’ with mesoporosity will be implemented here in the form of its janus structural combinations with metals to form MMBT MNMs and bimetallics to form BMBT MNMs in a fuel free environment. These MNMs will be implemented in photocatalysis of a one component and two component systems, viz. using a single anionic or cationic dye as the target (single component) or a mixture of one anionic and one cationic dye as target (two component). So, the new class of MNMs will pave the way for selective and non-selective photocatalysis. Overall, STIMULATOR will develop, a new class of materials called ‘direct-sunlight active MNMs’.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- VYSOKE UCENI TECHNICKE V BRNE · BRNO STREDCoordinatorCzechia
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union