PlastRemRobot

3D-architectured and Bio-based Multilayered composite microrobots for microplastics removal from water: PHYSICAL-chemical-BIOLOGICAL combined STRATEGY (PlastRemRobot)

The relatively low cost production of polymers and plastic materials and their features have made them essential elements in our daily activities. However, they have been accumulating in the environment for decades, being water the most polluted area with microplastics (MPs). Consequently, the growing concern their presence and potential negative impact on human health urges the need to explore advanced strategies for their capture, removal and, if possibly, degradation. PlastRemRobot aims at answering this pressing demand by designing suitable multifunctional systems that exploit simultaneously the three strategies generally used for MPs removal, that is physical, chemical, and biodegradation routes, and show that it is possible to combine them synergistically. Hence, it is the starting point of a new way of approaching environmental remediation from the integrated viewpoint of multiactive biomaterials & hierarchically arranged structures.

Agency: Agencia Estatal De Investigación CNS2023-144422

Principal Investigator: Maria del Mar Pérez Madrigal