The MICROCLEANERS’s project demonstrated that active micromotors can clean efficiently different types of contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, heavy metals and bacteria. We reported the cost-reduction in the fabrication techniques compared with the state of the art and avoided the use of Pt as catalytic material which was, until date, the prohibiting material for their commercial transfer of the technology.
We developed synthesis methods which can eventually be upgraded for mass production of microcleaners and enable multimaterial compositions for enhanced catalysis and photocatalysis.
We can integrate or combine different types of microcleaners in a compact device for cleaning small amounts of water off-line and in-line. This would have impact in society by reaching under-developed countries where the access to clean water is limited. Additionally, small companies would benefit from this technology using microcleaners for on-site cleaning of small amounts of water, avoiding the need to accumulate and transport polluted water to the water cleaning plant.
