Micromotors for environmental applications: a review

Self-propelled micromotors represent a new paradigm in the environmental field, greatly enhancing the efficiency of traditional operations due to the actively moving matter phenomena. This review highlights current opportunities and challenges in the use of micromotors for enhancing pollutant degradation and removal, accelerating bacterial killing or enabling dynamic environmental monitoring. Such studies exemplify the wide range of potential environmental applications of dynamic micromachines associated with their continuous motion, force and functionality. We will conclude with the challenges of moving these exciting advances from the bench scale to larger-scale field applications. Environmental significance This frontier article reviews recent advances in the use of self- propelled micromotors in the environmental field. It illustrates how mobile reactors or receptors can greatly improve the efficiency and speed of environmental remediation and monitoring processes. The new capabilities of synthetic micromotors that enable such exciting environmental applications are discussed. Current opportunities and challenges for using such functional nanomotors for improving diverse environmental applications are discussed.