Scientists Develop Tiny Robot Fish That Can Trap Microplastics From The Ocean
Illustration 109354308 © Arkadi Bojaršinov, photo 46122982 © Andreykuzmin | Dreamstime.com
A possible remedy to save the fish in oceans from invisible plastic pollutants? More fish. These ones, however, don’t need food nor gills, even. Their sole (get it?) purpose is to collect microplastics floating around in water bodies. You could think of them as superheroes with fins, because they’re capable of healing themselves too.
Scientists at Sichuan University’s Polymer Research Institute have developed a self-propelling robo-fish that can swim around aquatic environments to capture harmful microplastics. The bionic creature is just 13mm long—about the size of a pinky nail, describes ExtremeTech—and lightweight laser technology in its tail enables it to swim at almost 30mm a second. The team has documented its findings in a new paper published in the Nano Letters journal.
The robot is made of material inspired by nature; specifically, mother-of-pearl. Thanks to this, it’s got the softness, flexibility, and durability of the interior layer of clam shells. It’s able to twist itself to latch onto up to five kilograms (11 pounds) of free-floating plastic particles.
“It is of great significance to develop a robot to accurately collect and sample detrimental microplastic pollutants from the aquatic environment,” said Yuyan Wang, a researcher at the Polymer Research Institute of #Sichuan University and one of the lead authors of the study. pic.twitter.com/tDofckxOwA
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) June 23, 2022
The material has chemical properties that trigger an electrostatic response with plastics, allowing it to adhere to the organic dyes, heavy metals, and antibiotics present in microplastics.
Once the plastic particles are trapped onto the bodies of the bionic fish, the fish can be retrieved to dump out the pollutive compounds. Researchers could even study the collected plastics further to assess how to mitigate their harmful effects.
The robo-fish is also built to endure rough waters, and can self-regenerate to up to 89% of its body when it sustains a cut.
At present, the soft finned robot is only a proof of concept and has only been able to handle water at surface level. How well it performs underwater—let alone rocky sea environments—remains to be said, and its design needs to evolve further to better adapt to challenging real-world conditions.
[via The Guardian and ExtremeTech, images via various sources]
