Mirco-Engines Clean Wastewater

Dec-22-13 Researchers have developed tiny, jet-propelled micro-engines able to break down the pollutants in wastewater to create clean water, adding a new option to the short list of wastewater cleaning methods.

Developed by a team from the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, the self-propelled, swimming micro-engines have an outer layer of iron surrounding an inner layer of platinum. The device is powered by the addition of hydrogen peroxide to the contaminated solution, which reacts with the platinum to decompose into water and oxygen to form small bubbles that propel the device through the water. The hydrogen peroxide also functions as the catalyst for the Fenton reaction, by which hydrogen peroxide and an iron catalyst are used to break down the toxins into water and carbon dioxide.

The magnetic iron layer enables the device to be steered to hard to reach areas, and then be recovered once the cleaning is complete.

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[PHYS.ORG]
[MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE]

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